Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, stated that during his visits to the EU countries for the question of why Georgia was not granted candidate status in 2022, either there is no answer or there are different answers, which indicates that there is no single objective answer. "This indicates that there was not only no reason, but not even a pretext for the rejection," he added.

Papuashvili noted, "The West has realized the negative decision regarding Georgia was wrong. First, in most cases, there is a given - it is realized that the decision taken last June [on not granting EU candidate status] regarding Georgia was a mistake. Because everyone, on the one hand, realizes that if we talk about the merits of the decision based on criteria, Georgia is the leader of the associated trio [Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova], and this was recognized by the European Commission itself in the report," the Parliament Speaker added.

"If Georgia gets candidate status, the political turmoil inside the country will disappear, as this fact will destroy the entire narrative that the government's opponents have been building for a year and a half regarding the EU candidate status," Papuashvili emphasized. According to him, the EU will have to decide that, on the one hand, will be a message to the Georgian people - about how much the EU values the Georgian people's struggle for their European future, and on the other hand, a message to Russia.

"The struggle that the Ukrainian people are going through today, and for the reason for which the EU, in principle, opened these doors - this struggle the Georgian people have endured several times. So this is a message about whether the EU appreciates this struggle. And secondly, this is a message to Russia and our other ill-wishers as to whether the EU sees itself together with Georgia in the region as an actor or whether it is ceding this region," Papuashvili said.

In response to accusations that the Georgian Dream government is pro-Russian, the Parliament Speaker responded that all this is the machinations of certain political groups in the West that have levers of pressure on EU decision-makers. "For them, Georgia is equal to the former president - Mikheil Saakashvili," he added. "They are preventing Georgia from getting candidate status. And it is very easy to recognize these groups - the public can take a closer look at who is the patron of Mikheil Saakashvili, put an equal sign and see that these are the very political groups that are preventing Georgia's integration with Europe," Papuashvili said. "Unfortunately, we have several such countries that directly patronize Mikheil Saakashvili. <> Our society knows who is characterized by loud statements regarding Mikheil Saakashvili, including - lies regarding Georgia; allegedly, Saakashvili is tortured and improperly treated. These are those who are in the way... For them, Georgia is not the Georgian people, not their struggle, not our state, but Mikheil Saakashvili, <> the price of Georgia for them is zero," the speaker said.