PM Irakli Garibashvili will participate in an inaugural session of the EU-Georgia Association Council on November 17 in Brussels, where he will also meet senior EU officials, as well as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

It will be the first meeting of EU-Georgia Association Council, which has replaced Cooperation Council after the Association Agreement was signed between Georgia and the EU.

The meeting will be chaired by EU’s new foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

PM’s office said that efficient implementation of reforms set in the Association Agenda will be discussed.

An official from the European External Action Service (EEAS), EU’s diplomatic service led by Mogherini, said last week that concerns over reported selective justice in Georgia would also be raised at the EU-Georgia Association Council on November 17. 

“The EU has consistently been passing the message that it does not accept selective justice and we have been very clear and very firm on this,” said Rudie Filon, who is a political officer at Eastern European partnership division of EEAS.

He made the remarks while speaking during a discussion on situation in Georgia, which was held on November 13 at Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, a Brussels-based official think tank of the European People’s Party (EPP). Giga Bokeria and MP Giorgi Kandelaki of opposition UNM party were among the speakers at the event. Asked what precisely the EU will do if “these cases of selective justice” continue in Georgia, Filon responded: “We will not continue in a kind of business as usual when we get clear and unequivocal evidence that things are going in a wrong way in the country.”

During the visit to Brussels, PM Garibashvili will also meet president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.

On November 17 foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament will vote on whether to give a go-ahead or not to the ratification of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement.

PM Garibashvili also plans meetings with Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, and Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

Meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, who took up his post as NATO Secretary General in October, is planned for November 17.

The Georgian delegation also includes new Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili; new Defense Minister Mindia Janelidze, and newly appointed State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Davit Bakradze. The latter, who was Georgia’s ambassador to Greece, took up his new post on November 15.

Other members of the delegation are Economy Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili; Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani, and State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality Paata Zakareishvili.