The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, visited Brussels on 30 May, where she met the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. As part of her visit to Brussels, President Zourabichvili met with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

According to the Georgian President's office, the parties discussed, among other things, Georgia's European future, the 12 priorities of the European Commission and the challenges facing the implementation of reforms. The President also stressed the importance of granting the country the status of candidate for EU membership and "reiterated the unshakable will of the Georgian people to join the European Union".

Salome Zourabichvili 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 presidential administration said in a statement.

According to the European Council's press release, President Michel welcomed Salome Zourabichvili's role in bringing Georgia forward on the European path and overcoming divisions between the parties. However, he also stressed the need for further progress in the areas of judicial reform, media freedom, civil society, de-oligarchisation and depolarisation.

"It was noted that a number of far-reaching structural reforms will require greater support from the majority in parliament, underlining the need for inclusiveness and multi-party cooperation," the release said.

The Georgian President's administration also released information about Salome Zourabichvili's meeting with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

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

"For his part, the President of the European Commission welcomed Georgia's firm commitment to the European perspective and described as impressive the open expression of the will of the Georgian people to join the European family. The Presidents agreed to maintain close communication in this most important period" - reads the information.

After the meeting with Zourabichvili, the President of the European Commission wrote on Twitter that it was a good meeting. He welcomed Georgia's strong commitment to the European perspective and looked forward to continuing the work.

The visit had been postponed for several weeks. MEPs expected to hear Salome Zourabichvili on 18 April, and the issue was on the agenda for the plenary session, but by mid-April it was clear that the president would not be coming to Strasbourg.

The President's administration explained that Salome Zourabichvili's "most important visit" had been postponed "because of the artificially prolonged approval process by the Georgian government".

According to the government administration, the president received verbal approval "already in March", followed by "written approval" on the "specified letter" of the presidential administration on 13 April. Meanwhile, during all these weeks, according to the government, "the work process and the specification of technical details continued".