Georgian Parliament official: Georgia’s commitment to visa-free travel backed by robust reforms
Politics
Levan Makhashvili
Photo: Parliament of Georgia
Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on European Integration, on Tuesday reaffirmed Georgia’s strong compliance with its obligations to maintain visa-free travel with the European Union.
In his interview with Imedi TV, Makhashvili announced that Georgia was preparing a comprehensive document for the European Commission, detailing its reforms and legislative efforts.
“We intend to submit a document to the European Commission that contains all the detailed information, statistics, legislative processes, and all the data related to the reforms implemented by Georgia, the steps taken, and everything that ensures visa liberalisation functions effectively and properly”, Makhachvili said.
He further expressed confidence that this document was providing undeniable evidence of Georgia’s eligibility for visa-free travel, stressing that “this document gives me every reason to confidently state that, based on an objective assessment, there should be no question whether Georgia deserves visa-free travel. Of course, it does”.
Addressing the spread of disinformation, Makhashvili emphasised Georgia’s stability and reliability as an EU partner.
“Given the significant amount of disinformation that has been spread, I want to clarify to the public that the European Union has about 20 neighbours in the East and South, and amongst all these states, Georgia is the safest, most peaceful, and most stable neighbour. Georgia is not a burden to the EU because we ask for nothing from them except fair and equal relations”, he noted.
Makhashvili firmly rejected any grounds for considering Georgia a threat to EU citizens.
“There is no objective statistic, data, or argument that, in the case of objective reasoning, would lead EU member states to consider Georgia a threat to EU citizens today. Georgia is diligently fulfilling its obligations, and there is no prerequisite for any threat to visa-free travel”, the official concluded.
