On February 5, the Georgia-Western Balkans Inter-Parliamentary Conference on European Integration was held in Tbilisi, bringing together the representatives of the parliamentary committees on EU integration from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Northern Macedonia. The topics of discussion included judicial reforms, rule of law, economic integration with the EU, green agenda and gender equality.

The Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili, Chairperson of the EU integration Committee Maka Bochorishvili, and the EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński delivered the opening remarks.

According to Speaker Papuashvili, the conference is aimed at sharing experiences on the EU integration path. “I hope that the experience of Georgia will be interesting for the participants of today’s event. In the near future, we will all be full-fledged members of one big family. That is why already today we are ready to be your close and valuable partner and to promote the building of bridges of cooperation between the Western Balkans and the Eastern Neighborhood of the European Union”, he noted.

Maka Bochorishvili emphasized that the Western Balkans and Georgia “have a lot in common,” but “what the most important thing that unites today is the goal of becoming members of the European Union.”

According to the EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński, “the doors of the European Union have never been opened more widely.” Ambassador Herczyński emphasized the importance of learning from the experiences of the previous enlargements.

“The main lesson learnt is how vital it is to focus on the fundamentals. Rule of law, democracy, fundamental rights, independence of the judiciary,” the EU Ambassador said, adding that “the enlargement process is designed to ensure that by the time a country joins the European Union, its political transformation into a stable democracy respecting the EU’s fundamental values is complete and irreversible.”

The EU Ambassador briefly compared the EU integration of the Western Balkans and Georgia, praising the Balkan countries’ diligence in reforms and the latter’s “certain advantages” due to its further-reaching Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Agreement (DCFTA), “strong public administration” and “overwhelming public consensus.”

The EU Ambassador said that the role of Parliament is “crucial” in implementing the EU-recommended reforms for Georgia. “I encourage all political leaders in Georgia to look at these reforms very seriously. The experience from the Western Balkans is that countries which approach these reforms in this manner will advance faster than those that make only cosmetic changes.”