It was announced by Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia at a Media Briefing held today at the Government Administration.

According to the Head of Government of Georgia, it is a historic day.

"It is my great honour to congratulate you on the historic decision made today. The European Commission commends the results achieved in Georgia and recommends the European Council to grant a status of the EU Candidate Country to Georgia. It is, of course, a historic day. It is a historic decision of the European Commission. I wish to first and foremost express my gratitude Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. My special thanks go to EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, who is a great friend of our country" added the Prime Minister of Georgia.

The Head of Government of Georgia expressed his gratitude to the ruling team, thereby noting that today's achievement was made possible by each member of the team. According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, the governing team has been working round the clock over the entire year to deliver on the 12 recommendations.

"This period was very labour-intensive. It was quite emotional as well, as we carried out a huge amount of work, as you may well be aware. I wish to thank our wholesome, strong team - Parliament of Georgia, every member of our team, Chairman of the Parliament, Chairman of our party, each member of our team, as it is a result of our shared effort. Over the past year, we have been working round the clock to deliver on the 12 recommendations. Today, we saw a report, which is clearly and vividly positive. This decision is based on the achieved results. I also wish to thank Charles Michel, who has been supporting the granting of a candidacy status to Georgia. Of course, I wish to also thank our strategic partner - the United States of America. Most recently - a month ago - I had decisive and - I could say - breakthrough meetings with our American friends and I wish to particularly highlight it. I wish to single out a meeting with Mr. Sullivan and thank him personally, as you know it well that Mr. Sullivan and the US Government wanted and supported; it is of great importance. Once again, I wish to thank Ursula von der Leyen as I had a rather substantial and decisive meeting with her in Spain" noted the Prime Minister of Georgia.

The Head of Government of Georgia congratulated today's achievement to each citizen of the country and highlighted that this recognition and decent decision belongs to the people.

"Especially in the recent past, if anything needed to be made precise, our team made it happen with a shared effort. In a very short period of time we closed almost all the gaps and delivered on the recommendation, which were received from our European partners. Thus, once again, I wish to congratulate each citizen of our country, our people, primarily as this victory and recognition, this decent decision - I would say so - belongs to our people, which is represented by our government and our authorities. Once again, I wish to thank our team, our civil servants, government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our diplomats, our Parliament again, as over 100 documents were passed and created - a tremendous amount of work has been carried out. Undoubtedly, the entire team delivered a huge amount of work!" added Irakli Garibashvili.

According to the Head of Government of Georgia, irrespective of a lot of barriers, obstructions, sabotage and provocations, plenty of destructive actions, joint and coordinated activities of domestic or external enemies, truth has won.

"Of course, we now continue pursuing a permanent dialogue with our European colleagues, as we have been doing so far. We will have a close coordination with our European friends and I wish to note that irrespective of a lot of barriers, obstructions, sabotage and provocations, plenty of destructive actions, joint and coordinated activities of domestic or external enemies, we will win; our country has won today; our people has won; our truth has won and I once again wholeheartedly congratulate you all on the today's recognition" stated Irakli Garibashvili.

According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, this day is crowning and summarising the performance of the ruling team in the past 11 years.

"What is most important, I wish to say, is that we - and everyone remembers it well - were rather heartbroken when Georgia failed to get the candidacy status back then. It was somewhat hampering us and it may be said that the fact was heart-breaking. Nevertheless, we may proudly say today that we got to this day in a merit-based manner. I believe that our country will get the status of an EU Candidate Country in December and today's decision will be ultimately materialised. It may be said that our country will enter a different reality as a result. It is truly a very strong step made forward on the path of European integration.

I wish to somewhat summarise the results achieved by our team. This day, may well be said, is crowning and summarising the performance of the ruling team in the past 11 years, which brought peace, stability, huge transformation and change; it may also be said that it brought 10 years of Europeanisation. That is how we can label these 10 years of peace. If anyone, any authorities or ruling team, did anything tangible on the path of European integration, it was the Georgian Dream. And these tangible results have been the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, DCFTA, Visa-Free Travel Arrangement, European Perspective that we received last year and now the candidacy status, which will be - I believe - ultimately materialised in December. It is a short summary of our performance, our governance. Country - let me once again note - achieved unprecedented peace and stability over the past 11 years, irrespective of the unbelievable challenges and complicated security environment in our region" added the Prime Minister of Georgia.

According to the Head of Government of Georgia, it would have been impossible to achieve this if Bidzina Ivanishvili and his entire team - The Georgian Dream - did not make a historic change.

"It should be said that it would not have happened and it would have been impossible to achieve this if not - I would say - a historic change - a breakthrough change made by Bidzina Ivanishvili and his entire team - The Georgian Dream, which we pursue further as it is a great, national endeavour!

"Once again, I wish to clearly note on behalf of the Government and our team that we will continue coordination with our European friends. It is, of course, very incentivising for us and it may be said that we are thrilled that the European Commission assessed the situation and made the only right, decent, prudent and wise decision by issuing a positive recommendation on granting us the status.

"Our ultimate goal is naturally a full integration of the country into the European Union; accession to the EU, which required further more efforts, of course. It is a lengthy process, which will not end in 1 or 2 years. It is a multi-year process, which requires consolidation of our people and our government, entire authorities, effective governance and reforms to be continued that we have been implementing over the past 11 years.

"It will ultimately lead to a full Europeanisation of the country. Transformation of our country should continue and our ultimate goal and our great, main dream is to have our country united. It is our main goal, which we are getting closer day by day. I believe that today's achievement and historic step makes us closer to the great, common, national goal. Once again, I wish to thank everyone, our team and congratulate every citizen of ours living on this land on the historic victory and recognition witnessed today. We received a well-deserved status, one that our strong and proud Georgia people deserve!" concluded the Prime Minister of Georgia.

The European Commission recommends to the European Council to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership