European Commission recommends granting Georgia EU membership candidate status

The European Commission on Wednesday issued the recommendation for the European Council to grant Georgia the European Union membership candidate status, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission, said Georgia must receive the status as “steps have really been taken” for the outcome.

Georgia has taken steps to strengthen engagement with the EU and increased pace of reforms in recent months to address the twelve priorities identified in its membership application”, the Commission said in its comments.

“We recommend that the EU Council grants candidate status to Georgia on the understanding that a number of steps are taken”, the body said in a social media message.

Von der Leyen highlighted the Commission “fully supported” the European aspiration of Georgian citizens, and added there were “tangible steps” in implementing the bloc’s conditions.