Paweł Herczyński: The EU accession process is not based on a candidate country’s self-assessment - the European Commission evaluates Georgia, not the other way around

"I would like to state that the process of joining the European Union is not based on a candidate country’s self-assessment; it is the European Union that evaluates the candidate country," said Paweł Herczyński, the EU Ambassador to Georgia.

He made these remarks in response to a statement by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze at the Euronews Enlargement Summit yesterday, in which the Prime Minister expressed optimism that the European Union’s approach might change.

According to the Ambassador, the accession process is founded upon a voluntary application; by submitting an application for EU membership, a country consents to oversight and assessment by the European Commission.

"This is a simple truth; it is the foundation of EU enlargement. The European Commission assesses Georgia—not the other way around. The accession process is based on a voluntary application. By submitting a voluntary application for EU membership, a country consents to the oversight and scrutiny of the European Commission. We are making progress on enlargement. There are candidate countries that take the enlargement process very seriously—as you just heard from Commissioner Kós, who highlighted Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, and Moldova as frontrunners. Conversely, there are countries that—regrettably, and despite verbal expressions of interest—are drifting away from the EU path and actually regressing from the progress they had previously achieved. This is deeply unfortunate, but it remains the sovereign decision of each candidate country," stated Herczyński.