Brussels needs to be more flexible in EU membership talks, Georgia's PM tells Euronews

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told Euronews that the country is still confident of obtaining European Union membership by 2030.

Transcript

00:00Georgia's Prime Minister has said his country is ready to reignite EU accession talks if

00:06the bloc is prepared to change its attitude towards Tbilisi.

00:12In an exclusive interview with Euronews, Erakli Koba Kidze said European bureaucracy was getting

00:18in the way.

00:19Yes, so the current state of our relationships is not suitable for us.

00:29We are interested to have healthy relations with the European Union, which is not the

00:36case at this moment.

00:38But we are confident that it's not because of Georgia's policies.

00:44It's because of the European bureaucracy's policies towards Georgia.

00:49So if that policy changes, everything will be in a better shape.

00:53Back in November, Koba Kidze suspended accession talks with the EU after it accused his party

00:59of rigged parliamentary elections.

01:02Brussels said Russia had interfered in the October elections and called for an independent

01:07investigation into the matter.

01:10But Georgia's PM says their relationship with Moscow is purely pragmatic.

01:14We have no diplomatic relations and there is no space for restoring diplomatic relations

01:23because of the occupation of our two historic regions, and because of the recognition of

01:30the independence of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region.

01:34But we are running a pragmatic policy and that's the key content of our policy towards Russia.

01:42Just last week, the European Commission suspended visa-free travel for Georgian diplomats and

01:48officials in response to a violent crackdown on protesters.

01:53The full interview with the Georgian Prime Minister will be available this week exclusively

01:57on Euronews.