Georgian govt suspends accession negotiations with EU

TBILISI -- The Georgian government has suspended negotiations over the country's accession to the European Union and rejects any budgetary grants until the end of 2028, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced at a briefing on Thursday.

He said Georgia will be adequately prepared economically for opening EU accession talks by 2030.

According to him, the issue of opening EU membership negotiations is used as an instrument of blackmail, just as it happened in case of granting the EU aspirant status to the country.

"Our state target is to make Georgia an EU member in 2030 and we will spare no efforts for it. It is unacceptable for us to consider integration with the EU as a favour that the European Union should grant us," noted the prime minister.

Kobakhidze said that the government will fulfil all the commitments made over the Association Agreement with the EU "without any financial support from the EU."

Earlier on Thursday, the European Parliament adopted another tough resolution on Georgia, saying that the Oct 26 parliamentary elections held in the country were "another manifestation of the country's democratic decline."

The resolution said that the parliamentary elections were neither free nor fair and it called for the elections to be re-run under international supervision.