Mikheil Saakashvili and Wilfried Martens held a joint press conference and summarized the results of the EPP Eastern Partnership Summit session. According to Mikheil Saakashvili’s statement, Georgia has a realistic chance of signing the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU and have a visa free regime. New information became known today; Georgia will get involved in the ERASMUS program which means that at the beginning of next year Georgian students will study in Europe.
“What we have decided today in Batumi will have a tremendous importance for every citizen of Georgia throughout the upcoming months and years. The chairman country of the European Union will be Lithuania next year. Next year’s summit in autumn will be held precisely in Lithuania. The leadership of the EU parties and this union has supported today the fact that the EU should clearly express its readiness towards Georgia, and those countries that will be ready for EU membership. This is the principal issue for which we have to prepare. I would like everyone to understand how significant of a statement it is in terms of our integration into the EU. We have an absolutely realistic chance next year to have free trade with the EU. This means that our production will be exported to the EU member states without custom’s taxes, which will create tens of thousands more jobs in Georgia. The second is visa free travel with the EU. In this regard, we have achieved significant progress and we have a chance to conclude the negotiations towards next year. Hence, every citizen of Georgia will enter the EU member countries with a Georgian passport. If the Vilnius Summit, in parallel to this, will give us a commitment that we have to become a member country of the EU, it will be a historic breakthrough for Georgia in terms of protection of its own future and the creation of a secure environment. This concerns every country of the Eastern Partnership that will be ready by that time to satisfy exactly the same criteria, and equally concerns those states which will implement reforms. This date is very important personally for me, as it coincides with the end of my second presidential tenure and if I manage to turn Georgia into a country with a firm prospect of EU membership, with visa free travel and free trade with Europe, it will surpass the dream. There are also aspects supported in this document according to which, the “Erasmus” program will include Georgian students. This is a program, which gives an opportunity to EU students to travel within Europe and study at European Universities free of charge. If the European Union will support the same to be spread on all of these countries, on Georgians, on Moldovans, Armenians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians – it will allow for our students to go to all of Europe and receive much higher quality education. At the same time, with this document, they have supported today the opening of the European College in Batumi. It is only in Bruges and Belgium and there will also be one in Batumi. The European College here – means that we will have a huge international university, where the students of the entire region and different countries of Europe will study, where there will be European professors, a European diploma issued, with a prospect of European employment.” – stated the President of Georgia.
As Wilfried Martens noted, EU supports Georgia’s membership in this organization and the today’s event is preparatory stage for the Eastern Partnership Summit which will be held in Vilnius in 2013.
“We have taken decision today to institutionalize what we call now EPP Eastern Partnership Summit. The first point goes on clear political perspective of the eastern partnership and explains the main points on it. The second point on more content and you will find in this document more than 10 concrete points to give content to the eastern partnership. We welcome progress made since 2009 with the Prague summit and the summit in Warsaw in 2011. But we believe that in order to develop the political dimension and concrete benefits of the eastern partnership we believe first that the eastern partnership should offer a clear perspective for membership of the European Union to the countries of the Eastern Partners, who are willing and acting accordingly.” – noted Wilfried Martens.
After the joint statement, the leaders answered the questions of the media representatives. The journalists were mostly interesting in the implemented reforms in Georgia and the upcoming elections, namely the pre-election situation.
“Georgia is a young democracy that is realizing the values of the European Union and realizing extremely important reforms. Georgia is following the advice of the Council of Europe concerning the election law, concerning the role and the status of the political parties, the financing and especially realizing a policy based on convictions and courage. In all honesty a policy of not mixing money and politics, with a goal towards people’s future and especially upcoming generations. So, in that sense I feel obliged to intervene because I have seen the pressure and attacking of this policy during the periods of the communist regimes. It is impossible and I also wanted to create awareness among political leaders in the European Union and especially in the European Parliament. That’s the reason why I wrote this article in Le Monde answering also to another article in favor of the famous oligarch by someone, a leader of the European Liberals Party, incomprehensible for me but I had to respond to it. But the core question is: will it be possible to make progress again and to fulfill all the expectations of this young democracy totally differently from previous periods. And we see, as the President explained there is still pressure to make this impossible. This is unacceptable I think that still pressuring the post soviet period to return to the past is not acceptable for the people and the leaders who created the European Union as a new future for our peoples. Georgia is a European country and so we also had to support it as we did.”
The President of Georgia focused attention on the European and Democratic values of the country and noted that the people who want to return Georgia to the past won’t be able to achieve it.
“It is possible for a specific person to be sold in Georgia but Georgian people cannot be sold. The Georgian society and each Georgian know well that the talk is about selling our country and its future. Europeans cannot be sold because of the simple reason that this means selling principles Europe stands on and the principles that make it attractive for others. Europe is not a matter of pragmatic choice for us; to make a choice between Europe and the old system. For example, it is very simple to see the difference between America and the non democratic world – values and principles are formed correctly there; money and politics are separated from each other. This is how it will always be in Georgia because the Georgian people are deeply European, which nobody can misdirect from their course” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.