On August 28, Gia Volski, MP from the ruling Georgian Dream and the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, said skepticism on Georgia’s prospects for joining the European Union was misplaced given European leaders were seeing a real chance of EU’s enlargement by 2030.

The Georgian official acknowledged a lack of current consensus on the enlargement of the bloc but stressed that Georgian authorities should continue their work on meeting conditions for receiving the EU membership candidate status. "This is the rational opinion of European leaders. In this case, the word 'skepticism' is out of place - they see a real chance of EU enlargement by 2030 because, as Macron says, there is no synchronization among the 27 [EU member] states that is required from the EU," Volski said.

"Of course, all this does not mean that we should give up our obligations - on the contrary, there is the [2014] Association Agreement [with the EU], and there are meticulously implemented recommendations. It seems that there is a difference of opinion on this issue within the EU, and there is no consensus because several countries have been in candidate status and waiting for decades, among them Turkey for the longest time," the Parliament official continued.

On August 29, Irakli Kobakhidze, the chairman of Georgian Dream, said that the government has a reason for optimism regarding the EU candidate status because everything is ready for this.

"Naming the year 2030 was interesting because some countries received candidate status 12-18 years ago but are not members yet. As for Georgia, the country does its best to receive the status. We have made progress in the fulfillment of 12-point recommendations, and the process will be completed shortly. We will be upfront to being granted candidate status in December. The political decision is always 50/50, but let us see," Kobakhidze said.

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, said that the European Union should be ready for expansion by 2030.