Georgia doubts EU’s commitment to expansion plans — parliament speaker

TBILISI, October 6. /TASS/. Georgia’s authorities are beginning to doubt whether the European Union really wants to let Tbilisi join, Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

"Regrettably, we see that Brussels is gradually backing away from its promise to expand the European Union. The candidate countries are very skeptical about this. And we see that, at best, they will agree on [membership for] Montenegro and, perhaps, Albania. But I don’t think that some [EU] leaders are sincere in their statements about expansion regarding other countries," he told reporters.

Thus, he recalled that accession to the European Union was promised to Ukraine after the beginning of hostilities in 2022, with some of the EU leaders citing January 1, 2027 as the admission date. This day is approaching but no one is apparently going to admit Ukraine to the European Union, he added.

He also recalled plans to divide the European Union into first-and second-class members. "We see already today that we are not welcome in the European Union as full-fledged members, but rather as members with a marginal status. These days, the European Union will hold a discussion about whether there should be a class division within the European Union, with first-and second-class members who would have unequal voting rights," Papuashvili added.