Georgian PM: once EU bureaucracy moves beyond “Soviet-style” thinking, everything will improve

Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Tuesday said that “as soon as the European bureaucracy moves away from these Soviet approaches, everything will improve immediately”.

Speaking to journalists, Kobakhidze noted that EU-related processes had been used primarily as leverage rather than being focused on enlargement itself.

“One of the main reasons for the November 28 statement was to put an end to the blackmail, and they can no longer blackmail us. This has also brought calm to our country; they wanted to blackmail us every three months - sometimes by not giving us this, sometimes by not inviting us there, and so on. This blackmail has ended. All of this was calculated solely for the purpose of blackmail; no one was interested in admitting any country into the European Union. This was the reality”, he said.

“The only thing they were interested in regarding this topic was blackmail, and we did not give these people the opportunity to blackmail us. Nothing is of interest - not invitations to meetings, nor opening this or opening that - if all of it is being used as a tool for blackmail. We are not interested in their blackmail. As soon as the European bureaucracy moves away from these Soviet approaches, everything will improve immediately. That is their business. The only thing we are proud of and happy about is the unwavering support of the Georgian people; everything else is just a working process”, Kobakhidze concluded.