Georgian Parliament Speaker: EU membership candidate countries must be seen as participants of enlargement process, not its objects

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said the European Union membership candidate countries must be seen as participants of the enlargement process, not its objects.

In his speech at the first Conference of Speakers of Parliament of EU Candidate Countries in Serbia’s capital city of Belgrade, Papuashvili noted that the new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power all required the EU's changed attitude towards enlargement.

“It is very important that the coordination of integration efforts of the EU candidate states extends to national parliaments. While governments negotiate, it is the parliaments that give democratic legitimacy to European integration. On behalf of the Parliament of Georgia, I have several messages to share with my colleagues”, the Speaker said.

“First, the enlargement of the European Union is the main vehicle for Europe’s future strategic viability. The new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power all require the EU's changed attitude towards enlargement. Maintaining a Fortress Europe for decades, without enlargement, is no longer a viable option. The title of our gathering, ‘Shaping Europe’s Future Together’, captures this momentum well: The candidate countries must be seen as participants of the enlargement process, not its objects”, he continued.

Papuashvili stressed that the EU could not afford any more to see itself as an exclusive club that dispensed or withholded the grace of accession to the candidate countries.

“To the contrary, now the EU must get serious about its own overused metaphor: “It takes two to tango”, he concluded.