The European Commission fully supports visa liberalization with Georgia, Georgian and European officials said after meetings in France on Tuesday.
The Commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he “fully and unconditionally” supported short-term visa-free travel for Georgian citizens.
He said no further conditions will be added, countering a claim made by an anonymous diplomat quoted in Die Welt newspaper this week, who said liberalisation for countries including Georgia may depend on the success of a deal between the European Commission and Turkey about the transfer of refugees.
After meeting Juncker in Strasbourg, Georgian prime minister Georgi Kvirikashvili said the process should be finalized in the coming months.
The two also discussed the referendum which looks likely to take place in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. South Ossetian president Leonid Tibilov said earlier this month that he would like to hold a referendum on joining Russia “before August”. Tibilov said he thinks the vote will pass if it takes place.
Juncker gave his support to the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia,” according to Kvirikashvili’s office.
Kvirikashvili was in Strasbourg to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), before meeting President Hollande today for the start on a three-day visit to the Paris region. This will include a visit to Leuville Castle, where the first independent Georgian government in exile met in 1921.
SOURCE: commonspace.eu and agencies
PHOTO: gov.ge
