The Georgian Government today released publicly the questionnaire delivered by the European Commission to prepare the Opinion on the country’s membership application to the EU.
The 42-page-long document is divided into two parts, political and economic criteria, consisting of 369 questions in total. The two parts are divided into three and two sections, respectively, and about 20 subsections in total.
The first section of the political criteria, democracy and the rule of law, inquires about Georgia’s constitutional set-up as well as rules, regulations and the state of affairs pertaining to the Parliament, Government, Civil Society, public administration, civilian oversight over security forces, the judiciary, and anti-corruption policy and strategy.
Fundamental rights, the second section of the political criteria explores the situation regarding the protection of substantial, as well as procedural rights, respect for and protection of minorities and cultural rights and protection of personal data.
The final section of the political criteria asks about the regional initiatives Georgia participates in, as well as its participation in the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court and the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
As for the economic criteria, its first section — the existence of a functioning market economy — looks into Georgia’s macroeconomic stability, as well as the functioning of the product, labor, and financial markets, including the banking sector, capital and money markets, and non-bank financial institutions.
The second section, meanwhile, seeks to examine Georgia’s capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the European Union. In this context, it inquires into Georgia’s investments in education and innovation, as well as into the state of physical capital and quality of infrastructure, and the sectoral structure of the economy and enterprise policy.
See the full questionnaire here.
Georgia’s Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili said on April 15 the Government had decided to make the document publicly available out of high public interest.
The development came amid appeals of the opposition and the civil society organizations to European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi to help facilitate transparency over the process of filling out the questionnaire.
Commissioner Várhelyi handed over the document to FM Darchiashvili in Luxembourg on April 11. Georgia has a month to fill out the lengthy document.
Georgia followed the suit of Russia-invaded Ukraine to fast-track its EU application on March 3. Later that day Moldova also appealed for membership.
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