2011 has been a turning point in EU-Georgia relations, because the view that Georgia will become EU member has been strongly established in the European capitals, paving the way for “the beginning of materialization of our nation’s historic dream,” President Saakashvili said on December 12.

Georgia’s PM Nika Gilauri met on December 12 in Brussels with EU Trade Commissionaire Karel de Gucht and Polish PM Radoslaw Sikorski, whose country holds EU’s rotating presidency, for the launch of negotiations on deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA).
 
“This [launch of DCFTA talks with EU] is a very important political stage for our country,” Saakashvili said in televised comments at the National Security Council meeting, adding that it will take “not too many years” to complete these talks.

He said that in 2004 the Georgian authorities’ decision to raise the EU flag beside the Georgia’s five-cross national flag in a symbolic gesture of Tbilisi’s aspirations was “ridiculed”. 2011, he said, was a year of “Europe’s psychological turning point in respect of Georgia”, because many European leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as Polish PM Sikorski, started stating that Georgia would become EU member.

“If somebody had told me at the beginning of this year – and I am an incorrigible dreamer in that respect – that Georgia’s membership in the European Union would become a real topic, I would have said that it was a desirable view but it was not near to reality. During all the recent [international] meetings, or summits I attended, it has been heard as a refrain that Georgia will become a member of the European Union,” Saakashvili said.
 
“This [view] that Georgia should be the member of this political-economic union in several years from now has been established within the EU, in Brussels. This is genuinely, unimaginable geopolitical turning point for Georgia; that is the beginning of materialization of our nation’s multi-century old dream.”

“We – this generation, this political group, our present diplomacy and not sometime in the future – have a unique chance to achieve irreversible resolution of this issue. This is really a huge chance for each of us,” Saakashvili said.

“This is not just yet another diplomatic victory; this is the beginning of a very important, decisive, existential political process for [Georgia]; the beginning of materialization our nation’s historic dream,” he added.