The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabishvili, visited Brussels, where she met with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. As part of his visit to Brussels, President Zurabishvili will meet with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

According to the administration of the Georgian president, the parties discussed the European future of Georgia, the 12 priorities of the European Commission, and the challenges in the direction of the implementation of reforms. The president also emphasized the importance of granting the country the status of a candidate for EU membership and “once again expressed the unshakable will of the Georgian people to join the European Union.”

Salome Zurabishvili invited Charles Michel to visit Georgia. "The President of the European Council accepted the invitation and expressed his readiness to visit in the near future," the Zurabishvili's administration says.

According to the press release of the European Council, on the other hand, President Michel welcomed the role of Salome Zourabishvili in advancing Georgia on the European path and overcoming divisions between parties. However, he also emphasized the need for more progress in justice reform, media freedom, civil society, de-oligarchization, and depolarization [of the Georgian society.]

"It was noted that a number of in-depth structural reforms require the increased support of the majority in the parliament, which emphasizes the need for inclusiveness and multi-party cooperation," the press release reads.

The administration of the president of Georgia also published information about the meeting of Salome Zourabishvili with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

During the meeting with the president of the European Commission in Brussels, the Georgian president once again mentioned the will of the Georgian people to join the big European family and emphasized the importance of granting the status of EU candidate to the Georgian society.

"For his part, the President of the European Commission welcomes Georgia's firm commitment to the European perspective and calls the open expression of the will of the Georgian people to join the European family impressive. The presidents, in this most important period, agreed on close communication“ – reads the information.

After the meeting with Zourabishvili, the president of the European Commission wrote on Twitter that it was a good meeting. He says he welcomes Georgia's strong commitment to the European perspective and looks forward to continuing the work.

The visit has been postponed for several weeks. The European MPs were anticipating hearing Salome Zourabishvili on April 18, and this issue was included in the agenda of the plenary session; however, in the middle of April, it became clear that the president would no longer come to Strasbourg.

The president's administration explained that the "most important visit" of Salome Zourabishvili was postponed “because of the process of obtaining consent artificially prolonged by the Georgian government.”

According to the administration of government, the president received verbal approval "as early as March," which was followed by "written approval" on the "specified letter" of the presidential administration on April 13. In the meantime, during all these weeks, according to the government, "the work process and specification of technical details was going on."