Georgia, partly occupied by the Russian army since 2008, obtained, under conditions, the status of candidate country for membership, which it had been refused in 2022. An announcement which the Georgian president “rejoiced” Salome Zourabichvili.
“Europe is our future, there is no other”, asserts the Georgian President, Salomé Zourabichvili, after the recommendation by the European Commission to grant the status of candidate for accession to Georgia where the population is overwhelmingly pro-Western and in favor of moving closer to Europe. But the ruling Georgian Dream party is working towards rapprochement with Moscow.
Present in Paris to participate in the Humanitarian Conference for Gaza, Salomé Zourabichvili believes that this decision considers the “geopolitical dimension” from his country bordering Russia. This Commission recommendation will be submitted for decision by the European Council at a summit in Brussels in December. For her, “the European future is not only in Europe, it is also in Georgia”.
franceinfo: How do you welcome the decision of the European Commission to grant you the status of candidate for membership of the European Union?
Salomé Zourabichvili: This is a very important step. This is very good news at a time in the world and here too where good news is rare. This good news gives hope to the Georgian population. It was celebrated. I brought the population to start a campaign of signatures and petitions for the decision in December. In a way, we were preempted by an opinion from the Commission [européenne] much clearer, more encouraging than we expected.
What is clear today is that the European Union, undoubtedly because of the strategic issues with what is happening in Ukraine, in the Middle East, takes much more account of the geopolitical, strategic dimension. And it is clear that a half-hearted response to Georgia would have been a disaster for me and too good news for Russia, which does not deserve it.
So are you impatiently awaiting the upcoming European decision on granting candidate status to the European Union?
The European decision which will take place in December will give hope to Georgian youth.
“The European future is not only in Europe, it is also in Georgia. We have elections at the end of next year. The real European future will be decided through its elections.”
Salomé Zourabichvili, Georgian presidentat franceinfo
It is very important that Europe does not give us status just like that. This status must be accompanied by a presence, a European commitment until the elections to allow us to pass the milestone which is a new democratic milestone. How to move from a single party regime to a true multiparty coalition.
What do you think this recommendation from the European Commission to grant candidate status for membership to Georgia means today?
The decision, and I hope that it will be reinforced in December by the leaders of the European Council, is to some extent taking into account what was not done in Bucharest in 2008 at the NATO summit which did not receive Ukraine and Georgia. At that moment Russia may have felt like it had a green light.
You are in Paris today to participate in a peace forum, does this word have any meaning in this current context?
This word has a very great meaning in Georgia because this country remains in this extremely complicated region and the Georgians, against all realism, have managed to survive, to maintain their language, the three alphabets, their identity. What is very clear to the Georgian population is that there is no alternative to the European choice despite the aggressive demonstrations and pressure from Russia in different forms. Europe is our future, there is no other. You have to be on the other side of that red line.
What hope do you have by participating in this type of meeting in a world where democracies and authoritarian regimes confront each other?
In this type of meeting, we are not going to find a miracle solution to the fault lines that cross the entire world. But what appears more and more obvious is that authoritarian regimes are those which generate war, aggression and the only regimes which succeed in preserving themselves are democratic regimes. So more democracy means fewer wars, more authoritarianism means more aggression.