Chair of the DSCA and Co-Chair of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee, MEP Marina Kaljurand has said that the European Parliament deeply appreciates Georgia's impressive reforms track under the Association Agreement.

“When it comes to the statement released by the core group of MEPs (including myself) on April 1st, it is first and foremost important to keep in mind the context. At that time, we were still stuck in a political deadlock. Of course, in such circumstances, the perspectives for the further deepening of EU-Georgia relations didn’t look as promising as it did some weeks or months before. It is also important to make a distinction between individual MEPs' personal statements which might not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Parliament and the official positions of the European Parliament – the ones published on the European Parliament's website,” Kaljurand told the Accent.

As she said the EP Standing Rapporteur for Georgia, Sven Mikser, and she as Chair of the DSCA and Co-Chair of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee, regularly comment on the developments in Georgia.

“I can assure you of the European Parliament's deep appreciation for Georgia's impressive reforms track under the Association Agreement, as highlighted in our Resolution of 16 September 2020, based on the report by my colleague Sven Mikser – even if, as the MEPs have pointed out, further efforts are still needed in some areas such as the protection of vulnerable groups or the completion of the judicial reform,” Kaljurand added.

We have recently seen statements from several MEPs regarding Georgia's accession to the European Union. For example, on April 7, MEP Viola von Cramon told an online meeting organized by the Georgian Policy Institute (GIP) that "Georgia is further away from EU membership than we can imagine." Later, we saw your colleague Andrius Kubilius, who spoke about "giving Georgia a MAP-like mechanism: "A mechanism similar to the EU Membership Action Plan will allow the Eastern Partnership countries to receive all the practical benefits of EU membership without membership.”