Tbilisi: The Finance Minister of Georgia Ilia Darchiashvili and Spanish Finance Minister Jose Manuel Albares met to discuss the bilateral and multilateral relations between the nations as well as Georgia’s European integration on Wednesday in an informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Prague.
Darchiashvili provided information on the current agenda of Georgia’s European integration and how much the country has been successful in fulfilling its obligations under the Association Agenda as well as the 12-point conditions that have been outlined by the European Council for granting the country candidate status and in this regard the officials had positively evaluated the Georgia- European Union Association Council, soon to be held, said the Foreign Ministry.
Albares glorified the Spain support for Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Both sides have really appreciated the decision to support Georgia at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit. The summit is scheduled to be carried out in the capital city of Spain,i.e. Madrid.
The European Union Monitoring Mission has been operational in Georgia since 2009. Georgia has been preparing for formally applying for membership of the European Union since January 2021. But it actually had happened on March 3, 2022, when Georgia submitted its formal membership application ahead of schedule following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The European Union and Georgia have been formally related since 1996 in the INOGATE framework and in 2006, the five-year Action Plan that had been implemented as per European Neighbourhood Policy(ENP).
Another agreement, Association Agreement in July 2016, provided some access to some sectors of the European Market along with visa-free travel benefits to the EU.
Post-Brexit, many of the European Union agreements have been under the process of re-negotiation.
