On December 3, 2007, the visit of the prime minister of Georgia started in Great Britain. He participated in the celebration on the occasion of one year anniversary of allocation of the stocks of the Bank of Georgia at the London Stock Exchange.
On December 5, the visit of the Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze was continued in Brussels. He met with the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to discuss the issues related to mutual cooperation. According to the prime minister’s words, NATO is expecting Georgia to conduct the one month period prior to the elections in a smooth manner and accomplish the election process through democratic and transparent ways which will enable NATO to continue the intensive dialogue and successful work with our country further, in all directions.
At the meeting with the Vice-President European Commission, European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Mr. Franco Fratini, the parties discussed the problems of drug-trafficking and illegal migration; they also touched upon the issue of simplification of the visa regime. As it has been emphasized, in case Georgia complies to the conditions put forward by the European Commission, the Commission is ready to establish a special center in Georgia, which will be authorized to issue all kinds of visas to any of the Shengen countries. The Vice-President of the EU Commission underlined that it is their proposal to review the conditions of the visa regime and the fact that Georgia is already issuing the biometric passports, is of paramount importance to them for security reasons.
After the meetings, Vladimer Gurgenidze stated that the meeting with Mr. Fratini proved to be utterly matter-of-fact. Obviously, he is very much willing that Georgia reaches concrete results through the directions that he had discussed. The conversation embraced a number of topics interwoven indeed (biometric passports and protection of the borders of our country, in the conflict regions included).
During his stay in Brussels, Vladimer Gurgenidze also held working meetings with the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the EU Parliament Mr. Jaeck Saryuzs-Wolski and the EU Commissioner on energy Mr. Andris Pielbalgs.
“All the meetings that we have conducted here were the meetings with friends and partners of our country and an open conversation is always the manner that the friends choose while discussing various matters. Therefore, a lot of concerns as well as sympathies were expressed about future developments in Georgia; many questions were posed on the needs of future assistance to the country, yet those talks implied no tendency of changing attitude or turning our relations to negative”, – the prime minister emphasized.
At the end of the working day, the prime minister participated in the inauguration of the new building of the Georgian Embassy.
On December 6, on the second day of his working-visit in Brussels, the Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze met with the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana. The topic of the discussion touched upon deepening the EU-Georgia relations and the prospects of integration with the EU. During the dialogue, the upcoming presidential elections in Georgia were also discussed. According to Vladimer Gurgenidze’s words, at the given stage, we must be focused on the elections and proper accomplishment of the process. It’s so natural that this issue was thoroughly discussed, so that the constructive dialogue, that had already been started, should continue after January 5 as well. Being one of the members of the European family, Georgia should also tell the European friends (and the non-European ones as well) how the country is going to reduce, using the metaphoric language, the "waves and turbulences" to the minimum.
During the conversation with the European Commissionaire on External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the Deputy Secretary of State of the USA Daniel Fried, problems related to preparation for the elections and bringing Georgia closer to the European structures, as well as the questions of free trade and simplified customs procedure were discussed.
After the meeting with Daniel Fried, Valdimer Gurgenidze stated the following: "During the conversation we discussed the challenges which are already existent or may arise with regard to the conflict regions in particular. He briefed me on his own views and approaches to the Kosovo issue; we had a very telling and open dialogue". On his behalf, Daniel Fried asserted that recognizing Kosovo model as a precedent should be ruled out; this model has nothing to do with Georgia and therefore, it can create a precedent neither for Abkhazia and Osetia nor for the Prednestrovie region either.
One of the important moments to be emphasized is that within the framework of the visit, Vladimer Gurgenidze had a meeting with Peter Mandelson, the European Commissionaire on trade issues.
Prime Minister's Press Service