Mikheil Janelidze, December 20, 2017. Photo: mfa.gov.ge

“European and Euro-Atlantic integration represents Georgia’s primary foreign policy priority and one of the most important areas of the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mikheil Janelidze told the lawmakers today.

Janelidze spoke on the country’s foreign policy priorities at the joint hearing of the Parliament’s Diaspora, European Integration and Foreign Relations committees on December 20, a day before the parliamentary vote of confidence of Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili’s new cabinet composition. 

Janelidze announced in his address, that Georgia would develop a road map of the EU integration process to make the work of the Foreign Ministry “more focused,” specifying that, “conceptually,” this would involve four priority areas:

• Legal and institutional approximation through “full and effective” implementation of the Association Agreement/DCFTA; 
   
• Analysis of the compliance of Georgia’s legislation to EU acquis “to prepare grounds for further EU integration;”
   
• Institutional and legal integration with the European Union beyond the Association Agreement/DCFTA (further specified in six steps);
   
• Implementing the EU’s 20 Deliverables for 2020, a framework prepared by the European External Action Service and the European Commission.

Janelidze also spoke on the recent merger of the Office of the State Minister of Georgia on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying the two institutions were “in close coordination for years,” but “oftentimes, there were duplication in functions.” Janelidze said the decision to abolish the Office would eliminate the “overlaps,” and added that the EU integration process would be coordinated by the Government Commission on EU Integration.