Since Georgia was attacked by Russia in the Caucasus War in 2008, there have been fears of another invasion.
Georgia intends to apply for EU membership as early as Thursday. “We are calling on the EU bodies to subject our application to an emergency review and to grant Georgia the status of an EU candidate country,” the online portal “civil.ge” quoted the head of the governing party, the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobachidze. This is a political decision by the party “taking into account the general political context and the new reality”.
The application will be handed over on Thursday on behalf of the government in Brussels. With that, Kobachidze is making a U-turn. On Tuesday he insisted that Georgia would not submit such an application until 2024 because “a hasty initiative could be counterproductive”. In the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Kobachidze had also assured the government in Kyiv of Georgia’s support. However, the ex-Soviet republic does not want to participate in the sanctions imposed by the EU, the USA and many other countries. Since Georgia was attacked by Russia in the Caucasus War in 2008, there have been fears of another invasion.
Accession to the Union of currently 27 countries is usually enormously complicated and lengthy. In principle, according to Article 49 of the EU Treaty, any European state can apply for admission, provided that it respects basic EU values such as democracy and the rule of law. In practice, however, EU law must first be transposed into national law. Strict requirements even apply to the start of accession negotiations. There are currently five candidates: Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey. Their accession negotiations have been going nowhere for more than 20 years.
(APA/dp)