Georgia, EU initial Association Agreement
By Nazrin Gadimova
Georgia and the European Union initialed the Association Agreement on November 28, Georgia's Foreign Ministry reported.
The signing of the document took place as part of the Eastern Partnership Summit, which is being held in Vilnius on November 28-29.
Georgia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani signed the part of the document, which relates to the association with the EU, and Georgian Deputy Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Mikhail Janelidze signed part which relates to free trade.
From the EU side the document was signed by Head of the Department of EU for Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia Gunnar Wiegand and Head of General Department for Trade of the European Commission Philippe Cuisson.
It took several hours to assure more than 1,000 pages of the document.
An official initialing ceremony will be held on November 29, where Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze will sign the document symbolically.
European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule told Georgian journalists the Georgian nation may rely on the support of the European Union.
Fule said the Eastern Partnership summit in being held in Vilnius for the third time but now "it has a concrete content and cooperation tools".
"Georgia's progress in the process of liberalization of the visa regime has been clearly fixed at the summit," he said.
The commissioner said Georgia will become Europe's partner in development of the transport infrastructure together with other countries, which enter the neighborhood policy of the EU.
"Georgia may expect many things and the Georgian nation may rely on the support of the EU. The aspiration of such a beautiful country as Georgia into the EU will increase even more," Fule added.
Georgian side expects the agreement to be signed in September 2014.