European flag in Georgia

Georgian leaders have been aspiring  to enter the European Union for 20 years now, and there’s not a single political party in the country that does not posit entering the EU as one of its goals. The EU recognized Georgian sovereignty in 1992, and in 1994 Georgia and the EU started to work out the terms of the Partnership and Cooperation Treaty. In 1995 Georgia was included in the European trade preferences system, and in 1996 the Treaty was signed.

Today, Georgia is negotiating a visa-free travel regime with the EU in the framework of the ‘Eastern Partnership’ programme, but for now the EU, being concerned about possible illegal immigration, has simplified visa- obtainment procedures only for Georgian businessmen, journalists and scientists.

Being a post-Soviet state, Georgia had to eliminate corruption and the predominance of bureaucracy and to liberalize the market. However, the Georgian authorities preferred to do this by lifting quality control and by increasing the rights of entrepreneurs, to the detriment of their employees. Europe has left the period of ‘wild capitalism’ far behind and now finds any measures implying human rights violations and control-free production unacceptable. And this poses a pretty hard task for the Georgian government: it has to restore some of the abolished bureaucratic institutions and change the pattern of the job-market. As we see, Georgia’s European aspirations and its modernization come into conflict.

On the other hand, it’s impossible not to notice that Georgian activities in the framework of the EU are becoming more and more intense: 5 EU institutions are operating in Georgia, among them the Abkhaz and South Ossetian situation assessment mission. Several hundreds of European observers are constantly present in the conflict
area and, although their powers are fairly limited, their presence itself is a certain guarantee of peace.

After the ‘Five-Day War’, EU became an even closer partner of Georgia than the USA ever was. The French President contributed greatly to the ceasefire accord, and the Geneva principles of ‘incident prevention’ keep the situation at the borders quiet. Moreover, it is much easier for a Georgian citizen to obtain an EU visa than a US one, and there are no talks about free trade with the USA.

August 2008 turned out to be an indicator of the true interests of the global powers in the South Caucasian region, and it showed that the EU is in much greater need of the Caucasus region than the US is.

Moreover, the EU's developing relations with Russia allowed for the establishment of a sort of balance between Tbilisi and Moscow. Russia is much more inclined to negotiate with a commonwealth of independent countries than with the USA, which has a claim to be the single world leader.  Georgia is also much more interested in co-operating with the EU, which cherishes the interests of all its members, than with the USA, which has only its own interests at heart.

Georgy Kalatozishvili, exclusively to VK