Georgia's 'European Perspective': Experiences from the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe

In light of the Russia-Ukraine War and the changing geopolitical landscape of Europe, Georgia finally received the long-awaited European Perspective from the European Council. However, unlike Ukraine and Moldova, Georgia fell short of being granted EU candidacy status. Instead, it was promised to become an EU candidate after delivering on a long list of reforms and was grouped alongside the other potential candidates - Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosovo. In this round table, prominent experts discussed what likely lies ahead for Georgia in the next few years on the path towards EU membership. They shared similar experiences of other countries from Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, elaborated on significant risks and challenges, and provided recommendations on what Georgia could do to accelerate the accession process. Speakers: Tanja Börzel - Professor of political science and the Chair for European Integration at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin. Director of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script”. Natalia Sabanadze - Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor in International Relations at Mount Holyoke College; former Ambassador/Head of Georgian Mission to the EU. Toby Vogel - Co-founder of Democratization Policy Council Moderator: Judy Dempsey - a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and editor in chief of Strategic Europe