Hopeful Georgia takes baby steps towards EU - Features - Al Jazeera English
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/hopeful-georgia-takes-baby-steps-towards-eu-20131129161746617869.html
In 1999, the late Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania declared before the Council of Europe: “I am Georgian, and therefore I am European.”
Zhvania’s statement came just eight years after independence from the Soviet Union, and foreshadowed the South Caucasian country’s European Union aspirations and pro-Western foreign policy.
Following vigorous efforts by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to forge closer ties with the West, Georgia initialled an “Association Agreement” on Friday with the European Union at its Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Among other things, the agreement will make Georgia a member of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), which will remove many trade barriers with the EU. The initialling is a preliminary step towards signing the Association Agreement, which is expected to take place next year.
