Papuashvili: Candidate Countries Must Be Seen as Participants of EU Enlargement, Not Its Objects
By Messenger Staff
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Dream-led Parliament, traveled to Belgrade on an official visit to attend the first founding Conference of Speakers of Parliament from EU candidate countries, held at the initiative of the Serbian and Ukrainian parliament speakers, the Parliament's press office said. The conference aims to build a regular platform for dialogue, information exchange, and mutual support among candidate countries on EU integration, and concluded with a joint declaration.
Papuashvili said candidate countries must be seen as participants of the enlargement process, not its objects. He said the EU can no longer act as an exclusive club that dispenses or withholds accession, and that it must now take seriously its own metaphor that "it takes two to tango."
He said it is essential for the parliaments of candidate countries to be involved in coordinating integration efforts. He said enlargement is the main vehicle for Europe's future strategic viability, pointing to the new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power as reasons the EU's attitude toward enlargement must change. He said maintaining a "Fortress Europe" without enlargement for decades is no longer viable, and that the conference's title, "Shaping Europe's Future Together," reflects this.
He stated the EU should see enlargement as a historic opportunity for renewal and the return of global leadership, not as a burden or an act of charity.
Papuashvili said the parliamentary dialogue on EU membership should be a platform for practical cooperation, joint initiatives, and forming a common message to the EU. "When we address problems individually, our voice is weaker, our influence diminishes, and it becomes easier to prolong, politicize, or extend the enlargement process indefinitely," he said. He said the format must not become a space for ranking countries, lecturing, or discussing bilateral disputes, and that the joint declaration adopted at the conference states the countries gathered for unity, not division. He said the Parliament of Georgia fully shares this message.
He said the best way to address the EU's weakened geopolitical and economic position is to enlarge into the Balkans and the Black Sea, calling these strategically critical geopolitical areas. Citing Georgia's national motto that strength is in unity, he called for using the gathering to shape a common European future.
Papuashvili also said individual EU member states, or Brussels itself, from time to time introduce new and unexpected preconditions that artificially hinder the progress of candidate countries, calling these preconditions closer to political blackmail than a constructive attitude. He said the enlargement process must be merit-based, with clear conditions for membership, proper recognition of progress achieved, and intermediate targets that are not changed for political goals.
He said such preconditions stem from the EU's electoral cycles, internal political narratives, or disputes related to history and identity, and that no candidate country can manage such asymmetric power from an EU member state that can block its progress on subjective grounds. "Therefore, we must support each other in overcoming these unjustified obstacles," he said.
