President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili:
Greetings,
Today we have with us the EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who has arrived personally to me, for a very important issue.
She has brought to us the action plan for visa regime liberalization for Georgian citizens. This is a plan implementation of which will take us to our ultimate goal – Georgian citizens will enter the countries of the EU visa free.
After final implementation of this plan, each our citizens who have a Georgian biometric passport must be able to cross over the EU borders, so that nobody asks that person for a visa.
This would be a historic breakthrough for the citizens of Georgia. This would be a very important step forward in terms of approximation with the EU.
This is not a simple issue because many countries do already have experience in this sense, and this is a process which consists of technical issues.
Today when we have already implemented a lot of works, namely we have adopted biometric passports, improved border control process and we still have to implement a few legislative changes... This will simplify the process.
We need to work on other issues along with the dialogue – we are also working on the Association Agreement with the EU, on the Free Trade Agreement and we are preparing for the Vilnius Summit.
All of this will help us achieve progress in terms of the EU in this direction.
In the end, this is a several year long process, but I think that we can receive the first results next year.
We have been working very intensively in this direction for several years.
I would like to remind everyone that more people were returning to Georgia than leaving each year since the Rose Revolution, with the exception of 2008.
We had a positive balance in terms of migration. We implemented a readmission agreement and established order on our borders. We became the safest country around Europe. In this sense Europe has no problems with us.
We also established a good relationship with various prosecution bodies of Europe in terms of fighting crime and we are cooperating closely with them.
This will give our students an opportunity to study in Europe problem free after implementation of the plan.
Why did we open the Kutaisi Airport? Why do Wizz Air and Ryanair fly and administer regular flights, for example, to Warsaw?
I am convinced that if negotiations continue with Ryanair flights will be administered to Frankfurt and Brussels and it will be possible to travel to these cities for under 100 Euros.
Why was the airport being built in Poti? Why is the Kars-Akhalkalaki Railway being built, which is practically the Tbilisi-London Railway?
All of this is being done so that the citizens of Georgia are able to arrive in Europe in a more simple way.
February 25th is the day of occupation of Georgia. It is also politically very important to us that every generation of the Georgian society is able to travel to Europe – our natural home, developed European home – and we don’t cry over a 37 ruble Moscow ticket.
Those who are dragging us back are benefiting from the fact that the most of our society has not yet had a chance to travel to Europe; a part of the youth has not had a chance to study in Europe.
This is what we must overcome and make irreversible.
This is why for me personally, despite the kind of political situation we have internally, and despite the kinds of difficulties, the European direction is the continuation of everything we had been building in the recent years.
For me, visa free travel with Europe is vital because it is a crown of everything we had been doing in the recent years.
This is why no matter what kind of problems we have internally, no matter what kind of tension and reasons for discontent exist between parties, we must not stop moving towards Europe and Georgia must have no interference in this matter.
This will be an achievement of not a specific president or a prime minister but a very important affair achieved by the Georgian people.
This is why I welcome it, because I repeat once again: we were specially preparing for this– building railways, airports, replacing our systems, fighting crime, holding negotiations…right now nothing must interfere with this.
Today is an important day because a prospect appeared for Georgia. Nothing may change for Georgians tomorrow, but in the upcoming months and years something will change definitely because the European Union is presenting a plan to us today.
I welcome you once again.
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom:
Thank you very much Mr. President, let me start by thanking for your hospitality in this beautiful palace.
I am very pleased to be here today to hand over the actual plan of visa liberalization to the Georgian government.
This is something I attached great importance to, indeed as Mr. President said, when we had accomplished in this process a tangible effect of increasing people to people contact between European citizens and Georgians.
And I wouldn’t be able to be here today unless Georgia was not fully committed to the European integration agenda. We have many processes ongoing in order to increase Georgian integration in Europe.
Georgia has made remarkable progress the last year improving policies and legislation in a high number of areas.
The actual plan is a plan which indentifies the measures that need to be adopted and implemented by Georgia.
It indicated very clearly the requirements that need to be achieved in order to have a safe and secure environment for visa free travel within the EU.
It’s a guidance instrument for the road ahead for progress in areas that are crucial for Georgian citizens.
We therefore encourage Georgia to pursue the reforms and efforts in all the areas that are relevant for the visa liberalization dialogue, but also for the well being of Georgia as a society and its citizens, which includes fighting with corruption, organized crime, data protection, antidiscrimination protection of minorities and judicial reform in order to show independence of the judicial system.
The EU is of course ready to continue to support all these reforms. A lot of efforts have been made but there are things that still need to be done.
We welcome the commitment of the whole Georgian society to close the association with Europe, clear respect for fundamental values including rule of law is crucial in all aspects of cooperation with the European Union, including visa liberalization.
The democratic change of the government last October did not in any way affect Georgia’s relation with the EU, we had good relations with the former government, and we have good relations with this government.
I know, that cohabitation is not easy, but it needs to be manageable in the constructive in a responsible way and expect all parties the president, the government and the prime minister to play their role in order to find smooth and pragmatic solutions.
The constitution needs to be respected by all sides and the functional cohabitation is brought by constructive democratic position. This is important for Georgia, of course, but also for the international reputation of Georgia.
The constitutional change needs to be managed carefully and in accordance with international standards.
Georgia has so far been an example in the region and we hope very much that it will remain so.
And with this I am personally very committed and my collaborators and European Commission are very committed to work with the Georgian authorities in order to achieve full visa liberalization in due course.