Speaker: Georgia’s EU, NATO accession is a must

Speaker of Parliament László Kövér, on an official visit to Tbilisi, said Georgia should be allowed to join the European Union and NATO.

Kövér said it was beyond question that Georgia had made great strides towards the EU, Parliament’s press chief Zoltan Szilagyi said on Monday after the speaker’s talks with Georgian counterpart Shalva Papuashvili. European institutions, Kövér said, must repair the omission of Georgia as an EU candidate when Ukraine and Moldova had been promised that status. Georgia, he said, was the second oldest European Christian state and deserved candidate status, also considering it has made the most progress in terms of legal harmonisation among countries hoping to join the bloc.

Hungary will continue to support Georgia’s EU aspirations and offer help in the process of bidding to become a member state, he said. Hopefully, by the second half of 2024, when Hungary holds the rotating EU presidency, Georgia will have made even greater advances in this area, he said. The West must guarantee Georgia’s security, the speaker said, adding that Hungary stood for Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and backed the country’s NATO aspirations.

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Hungary, he said, trusted that it would be possible to restore the country’s territorial integrity through reconciliation with Russia and with the support of the international community. Referring to an upcoming joint government meeting of the two countries, he said both the Hungarian government and opposition parties understood the need to strengthen bilateral relations. Papuashvili praised Hungarian support for Georgia’s EU integration efforts, and he noted that the possibilities of deepening bilateral cooperation and the progress Georgia has made in implementing the 12 recommendations of the European Commission were also matters of discussion between the two speakers.

Kövér also met Levan Davitashvili, the deputy prime minister who heads the economy ministry, and David Songulashvili, chairman of the Georgian parliament’s economic policy committee. He also laid a wreath at the memorial to the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the territorial integrity of Georgia.