TBILISI. May 28 (Interfax) - Not only the law on the transparency of foreign influence adopted by the Georgian parliament will not hurt the process of Georgia's joining the European Union, but it will also prepare a better ground for it, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said.
"The transparency law will create a better ground for ensuring Georgia's accession to the EU. By 2030, Georgia will be prepared for the accession to the EU better than all the candidate states, and Georgia will become a member of the EU with dignity, independence, sovereignty and freedom," Kobakhidze said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The law on the transparency of foreign influence has increased Georgia's chances on the start of the talks on the accession to the EU after they were close to zero until recently, he said.
Answering reporters' question as to how he can be confident in it while EU member states are criticizing the foreign agent law sharply, he mentioned that representatives of the EU had demanded former President Mikheil Saakashvili's immediate release in the past, threatening with the end of Georgia's European integration. "We took a principled stance then. Saakashvili stayed where he was supposed to stay, and we were still given the status of a candidate for the EU membership," Kobakhidze said.
"Ultimately, our goal is to become an EU member state by 2030," he said. The new law, which was criticized by EU representatives, actually facilitates the implementation of the EU's main recommendation, depolarization, he said.
At that, once again defending the law adopted by the Georgian parliament, he said that if there is no transparency in the country, while revolution attempts are repeated every year, the country may not end up in the EU even in 2040.