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