Georgian leadership has welcomed EU’s decision to sign the Association Agreement, including its deep and comprehensive free trade component, no later than June, instead of August.

“This is an important step on the path of Georgia’s further integration in Europe. We reiterate Georgian people’s unwavering will to become full-fledged member of the European family,” President Giorgi Margvelashvili said in a statement on March 21.

He congratulated Ukraine on signing of political part of the Association Agreement with the EU and hailed it as “a historic event”. “I hope it will contribute to strengthening of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as stability in the region,” Margvelashvili said.

PM Irakli Garibashvili reaffirmed Georgia’s “full readiness” to sign the agreement and Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said that speeding up of the process was made possible “not only because the EU is interested in this, but because Georgia is ready for this.”

Georgian parliament speaker, Davit Usupashvili, who is in Brussels to participate at the German Marshall Fund's annual Brussels Forum, said that bringing forward signature of the agreement is very important for Georgia.

“Some may ask what difference it makes whether it will be signed in June or July, but this question was answered by developments in Ukraine, when lots of things were being decided for the Ukrainian people not in months but in days and hours,” Usupashvili said.

Usupashvili said that in Brussels he will be meeting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, as well as Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle.

“We will discuss finding additional measures for ensuring Georgia’s security,” he said.