EU-Georgia Association Council: EU expects ‘significant increase’ in Tbilisi’s alignment with EU values, says Borrell

The 8th meeting of the EU-Georgia Association Council took place in Brussels on 20 February.

The meeting was chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. 

The meeting focused on Georgia’s EU accession path, political dialogue and reform, economic and sectoral cooperation, trade and trade-related matters, and peaceful conflict resolution.

The EU and Georgia’s representatives exchanged views on foreign and security policy, notably regional issues and cooperation on security and defence.

Commenting on this first Association Council with Georgia as a candidate country, Borrell said that “being a candidate country requires a new level of effort, and also increases the responsibilities of the government, the opposition, of everybody.” 

He said that to meet the nine steps of the European Commission’s recommendations

Georgia should take “decisive steps to decrease political tensions.” He also said that the EU expects a “significant increase” in Georgia’s alignment with the EU values and principles in the coming years.

Borrell added that the EU is worried by the proliferation of anti-Western disinformation and rhetoric in Georgia, and encourages Tbilisi to redouble efforts to fight information manipulation and foreign interference. 

He also welcomed the electoral reforms undertaken so far by Georgia and encouraged the country to finalise them well ahead of the upcoming elections.

Borrell said that the EU has “massively strengthened” its security and defence cooperation with Georgia. Through the European Peace Facility, Georgia received nearly €63 million in engineering, logistics and cyber defence support. “This support will increase this year,” said Borrell.  

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