Georgia pushes back its EU entry target to 2030, amid electoral crisis

MEPs voted for a resolution rejecting the results of the legislative elections in Georgia, after which the pro-European opposition denounced fraud.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidzé assured, Thursday, November 28, that his government was postponing until 2030 its ambition to join the European Union (EU), set by the pro-European opposition. The head of government accused Brussels of “blackmail” against a backdrop of political crisis after the legislative elections at the end of October.

This announcement comes a few hours after the adoption by the European Parliament of a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of the parliamentary elections in Georgia, which gave victory to the ruling Georgian Dream party, denouncing “significant irregularities”.

“We have decided not to put the question of membership of the European Union on the agenda before the end of 2028”announced Irakli Kobakhidze. However, he pledged to continue implementing the necessary reforms, ensuring that “By 2028, Georgia will be better prepared than any other candidate country to open accession negotiations with Brussels and become a member state in 2030”.

Opposition deputies, who accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of authoritarian and pro-Russian drift, have refused since Monday to sit in the new Parliament elected during the legislative elections on October 26. President Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government, declared “inconstitutionnel” the new Parliament, while awaiting a response to its request to the Constitutional Court to annul the results of the legislative elections, which is unlikely to succeed.