Georgia, Tbilisi, Dec. 27 / Trend, N. Kirtzkhalia /
Georgian State Minister for European Integration Alexi Petriashvili expects that "candidate country status" will be assigned to Georgia at the Vilnius summit of the Eastern Partnership in 2013.
"The relations between Georgia and the EU will pass to an essentially new stage in 2013," he said. "The Eastern Partnership Summit will be held in Vilnius in November 2013. By this time, Lithuania, which is our ally, will preside over the EU; we want our specific goals to be implemented at this summit. It is necessary to complete negotiations on association, including those on free trade before summer."
Petriashvili said that more than 80% of documents have been already agreed upon within these negotiations. State agencies and experts operating during the period of the previous authorities have made significant contributions to this.
Petriashvili thanked them for this and stressed the importance of the state minister for European integration's office.
"The main thing is for Georgia's European perspective, envisaging Georgia's recognition as a candidate country, to be fixed at the Vilnius summit," he said. "I stress that this is a recognition of our ambitions for membership, rather than recognition as a candidate."