Georgian Parliament Speaker criticises Brussels’ approach to EU candidate countries

Georgian Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said European Union institutions were increasingly shifting from dialogue to directives, creating additional challenges for candidate countries such as Georgia.

Papuashvili commented on the current state of European integration processes ahead of his participation in the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Istanbul.

“I will now have a meeting with the speaker of the parliament of North Macedonia. As a candidate country, we will discuss the challenges they face - how the process of European integration is progressing for them”, he said.

“We will also, of course, have the opportunity to meet with speakers of parliaments from EU member states. We will talk about the unfortunate reality we are observing: unfortunately, Brussels is increasingly closing dialogue and shifting to the language of directives, which I believe is wrong. These issues should be resolved from within the European Union itself”, Papuashvili continued.

The speaker further noted that recent developments suggest Brussels was becoming less focused on dialogue and more reliant on issuing directives.

“Unfortunately, today Brussels creates more problems for candidate countries than it supports and assists them on their path to European integration. In this regard, direct communication with the parliaments of member states is important for us”, he noted.

He also noted that meetings were planned with representatives from Gulf countries.

“We will also meet with representatives of Gulf countries - the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia - and, of course, we will discuss economic relations and the situation in the region”, Papuashvili concluded.