Georgia finds "loophole" to join the EU (Part 1)

Efforts undertaken by the Georgian authorities to join the EU have yielded their first results. The country has drawn nearer to its goal. The EU Council has given the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton a mandate to negotiate with Georgia. She has already visited Tbilisi for consultations.

“The EU’s goal is to establish the closest relations possible with its eastern neighbors in Europe and Georgia. Georgia is a priority state for us, especially in the security sphere,” a statement said. It is supposed that the future agreement will replace the existing Partnership and Cooperation Agreement  between Georgia and the EU and give Georgia political associate status and the possibility of gradual economic integration into Europe.

Since its establishment, the European Union has promoted associate membership for non-EU member countries. In the first place, the EU honours with associate membership those states Europe has formed long-standing and traditionally close links with, e.g.  North Africa and Turkey.  Agreement on stabilization and association implies a country’s intention to join the EU in the future. Associate membership agreements provide for shared rights and responsibilities. The key point is that associate countries will gradually create a free trade zone and carry out political reforms aimed at adopting European standards in order to draw closer to the EU in this sphere.

However, associate membership can’t be called an entry ticket for guaranteed and automatic entry into the EU. The situation is paradoxical: there are a number of states associated with the EU, such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, but representatives of the European Commission avoid calling them "associate members". They are represented only as members of the negotiation process, along with potential and official candidate countries.

Turkey’s long-standing experience of cooperation with the EU shows that the association agreement with the EU didn’t make it possible for Turkey to join the prestigious club of European states. Turkey signed the associate membership agreement in  1963, but got the official candidacy mandate only after 50 years. Today, Turkey is no longer satisfied with the associate membership status, demanding full membership. In response, some European countries (for example, France and Germany) offer Ankara a status of privileged member or partner, vested in "special" relationship.

Unlike Turkey, Georgia is satisfied with this status. Georgia is the first country in Eastern Europe with which Brussels is ready to sign an official association agreement. In perspective, the Georgian authorities hope that relations with the EU will come to a new format.  Then, the candidacy is just a stone's throw away from the format. Demonstrating the earnestness of their intentions, the Georgian authorities even introduced the post of State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. This post is traditionally established exclusively in candidate states. This post was introduced in Georgia a few years ago, when the country embarked on a policy of moving closer to European structures and NATO.

To be continued

Nurlan Adilhanuly. Exclusively for VK