The Ambassador of the EU to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, told journalists that fighting disinformation and foreign information manipulation is step number one. 

“Fighting disinformation, fighting foreign information manipulation is step number one, especially targeting the European Union and the West in general. We have seen some improvement after Georgia received the candidate status. It was clearly the right decision of the European Union and its 27 leaders. Especially this year, with upcoming elections in Georgia and the European Union, we anticipate an increase in information targeting the European Union. We would like to work with everyone to push back and ensure that the Georgian population is well informed about what the European Union and membership in the European Union entail,” said the Ambassador.

“I encourage everyone in Georgia to work tirelessly, for the government to be very inclusive, and for the opposition to be constructive, so that progress is made on every single recommendation out of the nine steps that the European Commission gives a positive recommendation. The leaders will decide without any hesitation to move to the next step when it comes to Georgia’s integration process,” - he added.

According to him, the above depends on the reforms that need to be implemented by the Georgians themselves.

"The roadmap is clear, the nine steps are clear. It's actually only one page. It's very easy to read. There are intensive consultations between the European Commission and Georgian authorities on all nine steps and on all recommendations included in the enlargement report for Georgia published last year, including those related to judicial reform. This is one of the elements included in the enlargement report for Georgia. The discussions with the authorities about what this actually means are ongoing. I sincerely hope that colleagues from the European Commission will agree with Georgian counterparts on exactly what needs to be done. This will be assessed in the next enlargement report that will be published in October this year,” - he said.

According to him, the EU is starting preparations for the next enlargement report.

“We will have consultations involving practically everyone. We start next week with consultations with civil society. In December, as last year, the leaders will make a decision on whether to move to the next step, meaning the opening of negotiations,” said the Ambassador.

“We expect all candidate countries, including Georgia, to have an alignment rate with the common foreign and security policy of the EU as close to 100% as possible,” - the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, told journalists.