Georgian President to Euronews: EU Problems Slowing Down Georgia’s Integration

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili believes that the problems and challenges that are in the European Union (EU) are slowing down Georgia’s EU integration process.

In his interview with Euronews, Margvelashvili noted that when there is ambiguity on some of issues within the EU, like Brexit, then the decision making is slowed down, adding the Russian factor is one of the factors in this process.

“I wouldn’t say that eventually they will affect the European process or eventually they will stop Georgia’s integration, but they are definitely slowing down the process,” he stated.

As for the connection between the Russian factor and the divisions within the EU, Margvelahvili noted that the Russian factor is not in the context of divisions in the EU.

“But the Russian factor is with respect to a more active engagement of Ukraine, Georgia and other neighbors of Russia in the European process, because we’ve seen that Russia has reacted very aggressively,” he added.

The Georgian President believes that Russia’s good relations with some of the EU countries is increasing tension in the region and it all comes back eventually to any of those countries.

“I know that if you build one-on-one relationships with Moscow and forget about the principles, and forget about the basics and forget about international law, eventually those problems will come back at you. That is the law of history,” he said.

In the end, the Head of the Post-Soviet country stated that Georgia is looking for to have more steps to go to the final benchmark of being a member of the EU.

By Thea Morrison