Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Thursday said the integration into the European Union was now “inevitable” with Georgia's EU membership candidate status.

In her remarks with Imedi TV, Botchorishvili emphasised the transformative path undertaken by Georgia to achieve this milestone, highlighting the inevitability of further integration into the bloc, considering the country's newfound status as a candidate.

“In fact, behind this [visa-free travel with EU] there was a lot of hard work from the [Georgian] Government and we should not forget that. Georgia went through many stages in order to reach this result, which to date is considered to be one of our best outcomes in relations with the European Union. A lot of efforts were put into the necessary reforms to achieve this outcome”, Botchorishvili said.

“A lot of correct political decisions were made even by this Government, the teamwork of the state agencies finally brought this outcome, which our citizens can enjoy, to travel freely in the EU member states. Now that Georgia is a candidate country, the integration into the European Union is inevitable, this is our future. We have to think about it”, she continued.

Botchorishvili rejected populist rhetoric surrounding the migration and advocated for a balanced approach to addressing the opening of labour markets within the European Union.

“Very often we hear, for example, speculations about the topic of migration, people going to EU countries, and very often this topic is used for some kind of populist propaganda, which is very wrong”, Botchorishvili said.

“If we are talking about the integration in the European Union, the process that should lead us to the eventual membership in the single space of the European Union, [this process] itself implies the opening of the labour market”, Botchorishvili concluded.

imedi