Georgian Leadership’s Expectations from EU Summit

President Saakashvili said late on August 31 he did not know what the outcome of the EU leaders’ summit would be, but he expected the European Union to say that it would never recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“I expect the European Union not to step back in the face of this dirty and outrageous attempt to legalize this illegality,” he said in a televised address to the nation. “I expect the European Union to support our country’s territorial integrity and to state that will never recognize results of this illegality. This is very important for us, because we will never tolerate it.”

He also said that he expected launch of “a big process.” “This is a process of Georgia’s final liberation; the process of Georgia’s real European integration; the process of final neutralization of aggressive forces in the region,” Saakashvili said.

He also said that this “will not be an easy process.”

Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgia’s state minister for reintegration, who is currently visiting Brussels together with PM Lado Gurgenidze and Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili, elaborated Georgia’s expectation in respect of the EU summit in more details.

He said in an interview with the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on August 31 that the Georgian side expected the summit to discuss EU-Georgia relations in various aspects.

“First of all this is humanitarian aid for the displaced persons,” he said. “Secondly, this is aid to help stabilize Georgia’s economy and to maintain foreign investors confidence towards Georgia – Americans are pledging USD 1 billion and it will be good if the Europeans allocate EUR 1 billion.”

“From the political point of view we expect launch of the process of integration, involving free trade regime, simplified visa rules, as well as institutional integration with the EU – of course it is early to speak about membership, but steps in this direction should be accelerate,” Iakobashvili said.

He also said that EU monitors on the ground should play an important role in “the process of de-occupation of Georgia.”

As far as EU-Russia relations are concerned, Iakobashvili said he did not expect the European Union to undertake “kind of traumatic steps against Russia at this stage.”

“However, we will most likely see EU’s strong language towards Russia and I think EU will choose the way of step-by-step isolation of Russia,” Iakobashvili said and added that EU would most likely warn Russia and start resorting to various sanction only after Russia still defied those warnings.