Tbilisi eyes EU membership within 15 years

Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze has expressed hope that his country will become a European Union member – or be in the final stages of joining the union – within 15 years, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL, reported on its website.

Speaking to RFE/RL ahead of a meeting with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, Baramidze, who is also Georgia's state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said there were no specific timetables but that he had "some kind of time frame" in mind.

"We know that neither Georgia is ready today nor [is] the European Union [ready] for Georgia to become a member of the EU," he said. "But in the future – let's say in 15 years plus, minus, I don't know – it is quite realistic to speak about Georgia's EU membership."


/Hurriyet Daily News/