With the status of a candidate, Georgia’s accession to the European Union has become irreversible, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs in his speech at the annual conference of Ambassadors.

“We are opening this year’s conference with the most important achievement in the history of Georgia’s European integration - Georgia is a candidate country for EU membership.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, with the coordinated and highly professional involvement of Government agencies, and of course, with our great diplomatic efforts and team spirit, we were able to take another clear step towards achieving the goal that has been our cherished dream for centuries.

I would also like to highlight the role of the Parliament of Georgia and each member of the governing team. We took this step with dignity, protecting common European values and the interests of our country. As a candidate, Georgia"s accession to the EU became irreversible.

For further success, we will continue to implement the reform agenda based on public and national interests, and together with the EU, we will definitely reach the appropriate decision to start negotiations. We have special, civilizational ties with Europe. Our European partners rightly believe that Georgia’s place is in the European family.

This year, cooperation with individual institutions of the EU, as well as with member states, was particularly fruitful, which played a special role in the positive decision of the European Commission and later the European Council”, - said Ilia Darchiashvili.