The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz:

Ladies and gentleman

We had a very interesting exchange of views, taking into account the fact that yesterday the Prime Minister was here. I met the Prime Minister, I underlined in the meeting with President Saakashvili what I said also to the Prime Minister yesterday. The European Union is looking at a lot of interests and partially worries to the development in the country. What the country needs is a prudent and careful transition period after the building of a new government. I discussed the same item yesterday with the newly elected Prime Minister and I think this is not the first country in which cohabitation between the President and the Prime Minister from  different political affiliations is necessary, there are very good examples that this is possible. France, for example, is a country which had successful and full cohabitation. I think the respect of the rules of the constitution is therefore the basis, a good basis. The constitution in Georgia foresees that the next presidential elections will be in October 2013.  I think cohabitation, should, from the new elected Government between you and the Prime Minister, be   organized at least until the foreseen next presidential election. We are looking as the European Union to Georgia, as an important partner in the region. Georgia is a country with a high importance for the regional development, for the regions stability, for a stable government, stable cooperation between the President and Prime Minister is from the highest importance not only for the country itself. That is why cooperation and cohabitation with the Prime Minister is of the highest importance for the region and therefore for the European Union.  That’s the reason why I made, on behalf of the European Parliament yesterday, an appeal to the Prime Minister and I made the same appeal to the President of Georgia today. I hope that my appeal will be listened to, will be heard by both of the responsible personalities in the country. We are looking to all the measures taken by the Government and by the President and what’s more we agreed, President Saakashvili and me that we should stay in very close contact. I must admit that for the second time the President invited me to visit the country, and I answered the second time that I am very honored by the invitation, and if it is possible we will visit the country but I must admit that I am so overcharged for the time being, not giving a date, but thank very much the President for your invitation.

The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili:

Thank you very much, I’m incredibly honored to be received by you and I am very grateful that   I was given a chance to speak twice to the European Parliament. Very few world leaders have received such an honor and for the second time it was under your leadership, and I have to tell you that of course, as never before, we are attached to European institutions. We are here to advocate Georgia’s further rapprochement with the European Union, getting European prospective for Georgia, progress in visa liberalization. We already achieved visa facilitation, now we need to get visa liberalization. We already have moved toward very close association agreement to “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade” with the EU and Georgia has no alternative, it's not a matter of party choice, its matter of choice of the people for the long term future of our country. And from that point of view, we strongly want, and are appealing to the present Government of Georgia, to cooperate. we have lots of party differences inside  the  country, there are lots of things we might like or not like, but we can't neglect and ignore the long term needs of our nation… cooperation, also in the European framework. And from that point of view, I think that the Prime Minister coming here and meeting with you had lots of informative values for him, we also shared all of our experience with our new Government and we hope that in the future, no matter what the difference might be, one year left for me as a president, I would very much like to be involved in this kind of cooperation, facilitation, sharing experience, building what we already have achieved and moving forward.

Answer to journalist’s question:

Mikheil Saakashvili: You know that the Secretary General of NATO, today and 2 days ago, as well as the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO expressed strong concern over these concrete issues. The President of the European Commission and Mr. Rompuy of the European Union spoke about selective justice. I’m not here to repeat what they said, but that was a very clear message. Me as President, we hope that things can go back to normal, and go back to the situation of rule of law. We handed power in very velvet way, very soft way, we wanted them to function normally, what we are seeing immediately after the hand over of power,  and I did not have to hand them over to the presecuters office. It was presidential prerogative. I could have a lot of prerogatives: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defense.  I gave most of it to them. And we thought that we were giving it to act in a responsible manner and this President of the Parliament said that the President has his own power, they want the parliament election and they have their own powers. They won the Parliament election and formed the Government but there is already an existing self government in Georgia, and there is a presidential institution that has one more year to go, and I am more than willing to make life easy for them provided that the legal frame work is secure.

Now having said that, obviously such a high level institution talking about concern, that’s of concern to me. I’m not happy to hear these concerns, I’m not here to complain, we are here to advance Georgia’s integration in the European Union.

The last thing that I wanted to hear, we wanted to come here and build on the momentum of the election and use it for the integration in NATO, use it for the integration in the EU and use it for positive means. That’s the goal of our Government. When we come here and we are given this positive agenda, we already hear these kinds of concerns, this hinders our agenda and does not make me happy.

I can not be happy from the angle of European integration and I hope that this is a temporary event.  In the long run, I’m looking forward to checking these accesses, changing these accesses, going back to normal and delivering on promises to the people. What was promised to the people. I don’t think they’ve promised mass arrest, I think they have been promised that there would be a peaceful constitutional framework and delivery of basic services to people, delivering the election promises, delivering a better life ultimately in every household in my multiethnic country. And hopefully, the Government will go to that mindset and move forward rather than just be focused on the past. We need to move forward, we want to get beyond those differences and beyond election frictions. And we did, our party, very well. We gave no reason to be bitter or to be repressive or to look for retributions. And I’m going to continue the same way. And I hope that all the sides behave the same as well.

Martin Schulz: In my country where I’m living, I’m representing the Federal Republic of Germany in the European Parliament; in my country former ministers are not brought to prison. Therefore it is a surprise. I asked my advisers to check the legal and political backgrounds of the actions taken against former ministers and I’m waiting for the report and I will present my position after I have got the necessary information. I took note that my colleagues presidents of other institutions expressed their view, I can understand sudden reaction, but first of all I want to be informed at a more concrete level and deep analysis of the cases before I express my view and I take action. And once more, it surprised me that former members of the government are now in the hands of justice. But before I express my view I want to know more.

Thank you very much.