{"id":1356234,"date":"2022-03-03T08:21:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T13:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1356234"},"modified":"2022-03-03T08:22:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T13:22:48","slug":"georgia-to-apply-for-eu-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-to-apply-for-eu-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia to Apply for EU Membership"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgeorgia-to-apply-for-eu-membership%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1356234&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Irakli-Kobakhidze2.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Ruling Georgian Dream party chair Irakli Kobakhidze has announced Georgia will file for EU membership tomorrow, following the suit of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe call on the EU bodies to review our application in an emergency manner and to make the decision to grant Georgia the status of an EU membership candidate,\u201d MP Kobakhidze said in a special briefing on March 2 evening.<\/p>\n<p>He said the Georgian Dream made a political decision \u201cconsidering the overall political context and the new reality, based on consultations with the party\u2019s political council members and first of all, the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFiling a strong application in 2024, backed by new reforms, as it was envisaged by the Georgian Dream\u2019s election program would have had an advantage over applying hastily,\u201d he stressed, however.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is our dream and political goal for Georgia to become an economically strong and safe European country,\u201d MP Kobakhidze asserted. \u201cEvery move of our government, including the decision today, serves this aim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ruling party chair also argued the GD government has had \u201cmultiple impressive achievements on the path of integration with the EU,\u201d including the signing of the Association Agreement in 2014 and getting visa-free regime in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>According to MP Kobakhidze, integration with the EU is a \u201cpath that shall lead our country to overcome poverty, to a qualitative increase in our population\u2019s well-being and security and to de-occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The move marks a u-turn in Irakli Kobakhidze\u2019s rhetoric over the day. Yesterday he <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/476433\" target=\"_blank\">defended<\/a> <\/strong>the stated goal to apply for the membership in 2024, arguing \u201ca hasty initiative could be counterproductive because we have to satisfy certain terms over the [next] two years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Facing domestic calls to follow the footsteps of Kyiv, he said yesterday that the 27-member bloc had offered Ukraine to review a candidate status in an expedited manner, but the offer did not stand for Georgia or Moldova.<\/p>\n<p>Noteworthy, the decision comes during President Salome Zurabishvili\u2019s trip to Brussels, where she met European Council and Commission Presidents, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, respectively yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the relations between the GD government and Brussels have been somewhat strained, the least because of the controversial <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/459326\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Supreme Court\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/452507\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>High Council of Justice<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0appointments, GD\u2019s\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/437831\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>preemptive refusal<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of conditional EU loan, and Georgia\u2019s\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/441030\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>alleged spying<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/462863\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>western diplomats<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Deepening hiatus in relations, GD <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/434256\" target=\"_blank\">unilaterally quit<\/a><\/strong> the <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/archives\/414150\" target=\"_blank\">EU-brokered April 19 deal<\/a><\/strong> between governing and opposition parties in July. It also failed the pledge to undertake legal changes under the deal, prompting EU and U.S. criticism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>NB: This article was updated for ease of reading.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wpml-ls-statics-post_translations wpml-ls\">This post is also available in:<br \/>\n<span class=\"wpml-ls-slot-post_translations wpml-ls-item wpml-ls-item-ka wpml-ls-first-item wpml-ls-item-legacy-post-translations\"><a href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/ka\/archives\/477045\" class=\"wpml-ls-link\"><span class=\"wpml-ls-native\" lang=\"ka\">\u10e5\u10d0\u10e0\u10d7\u10e3\u10da\u10d8<\/span><span class=\"wpml-ls-display\"><span class=\"wpml-ls-bracket\"> (<\/span>Georgian<span class=\"wpml-ls-bracket\">)<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>    <span class=\"wpml-ls-slot-post_translations wpml-ls-item wpml-ls-item-ru wpml-ls-last-item wpml-ls-item-legacy-post-translations\"><a href=\"https:\/\/civil.ge\/ru\/archives\/477057\" class=\"wpml-ls-link\"><span class=\"wpml-ls-native\" lang=\"ru\">\u0420\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439<\/span><span class=\"wpml-ls-display\"><span class=\"wpml-ls-bracket\"> (<\/span>Russian<span class=\"wpml-ls-bracket\">)<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruling Georgian Dream party chair Irakli Kobakhidze has announced Georgia will file for EU membership tomorrow, following the suit of Ukraine.\u201cWe call on the EU bodies to review our application<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}