Tbilisi
Tens of thousands of people in Georgia are demanding EU membership
Thousands of people demonstrate in front of the parliament building in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi for their country’s accession to the European Union. Photo: Shakh Aivazov/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
It is not only in Ukraine and Moldova that many support the pursuit of EU membership. Similar demands are also becoming louder elsewhere in Eastern Europe. And not only that.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Georgia on the Black Sea for the South Caucasus republic to join the EU.
In the capital, Tbilisi, they also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. The Georgian media reported that his government had not done enough to ensure that Georgia became a candidate for EU membership.
The organizers of the protests in front of the parliament therefore demanded an interim government. “If the government doesn’t want to hear the will of the Georgian people, we (…) will show them the anger of the Georgian people like they’ve never seen it before,” shouted a speaker at the protest. It was only on Monday that demonstrators had called for more efforts to join the EU.
On Thursday, the EU heads of state and government summit granted Ukraine and Moldova the status of EU candidate countries. Georgia should first implement reforms before that happens. The country submitted an application in Brussels at the beginning of March. “The application for EU membership is another milestone on Georgia’s path to European integration,” Garibashvili said.