Abstract
Despite living under the shadow of its northern neighbour and lacking a common border with the European Union (EU), Georgia has maintained a vocal pro-European orientation and limited Russia’s influence over its domestic politics. But how firm is Georgia’s inclusion into the EU’s security community? In this chapter, the authors address this question by examining Georgia’s alignment with EU institutions and policies, as well as the level of attraction enjoyed by the Union among local citizens. Despite favourable conditions, the chapter pinpoints a series of internal and external stumbling blocks to Brussels’ ambition to anchor Georgia in its security community.
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Notes
- 1.
In late 2004, after Russia vetoed mandate extension of the OSCE border-monitoring mission in Georgia, Tbilisi officially invited the EU to take over the mission. To Georgia’s disappointment, however, Brussels dismissed this request, and nor did the ENP Action Plan place higher priority on the security aspects.
- 2.
Thus far, the de facto authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have denied EUMM access to the territories under their control.
- 3.
The Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs have worked closely with the EU authorities on combating organized crime, eventually ‘leading to the successful investigation of large organized crime groups in Spain and Belgium’ (Slade 2009, p. 11).
- 4.
One of the major obstacles here is the lack of a labour inspectorate to monitor suspected cases of forced labour.
- 5.
- 6.
In 2014, GDP PPP per capita was USD 3680.
- 7.
The official unemployment rate was 14.6 % in 2013. However, several policy experts have suggested that the number of people without a stable income is higher, given that in the 2013 Caucasus Barometer survey, 60 % of the respondents said that they did not have a job (Transparency International 2015, p. 13).
- 8.
The EU and Georgia have agreed to exchange all relevant information needed to conduct investigations on possible infringement/customs fraud. These protocols are particularly important for ensuring that only Georgian and EU goods benefit from DCFTA free trade provisions.
- 9.
Strategy on Standardization, Accreditation, Conformity Assessment, Technical Regulation, and Metrology, adopted under the Decree of Government N965 2010/16.
- 10.
Trade-related statistics from GEOSTAT—National Statistics Office of Georgia http://geostat.ge/index.php?lang=eng [accessed 5 May 2015].
- 11.
- 12.
TACIS = Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
- 13.
The ‘must carry/must offer’ provisions oblige cable providers to transmit all television channels with news programmes during the 60-day campaign period.
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Bolkvadze, K., Lebanidze, B. (2016). Building a Security Community in the EU’s Neighbourhood? Experiences from Georgia. In: Rieker, P. (eds) External Governance as Security Community Building. The European Union in International Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56169-5_4
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