As expected, at the European Union summit in Brussels, on June 23, the European Council decided not to award membership candidate status to Georgia. The EU’s top agenda-setting body, composed of the bloc’s heads of state and government, only conceded its readiness to grant the status of a candidate country to Georgia once Tbilisi addressed all of the reservations specified in the European Commission’s opinion on the Georgian membership application. Pro-Kremlin media outlets cynically panned the EU decision: “Europe Betrayed Georgia,” RIA Novosti thundered on its pages (RIA Novosti, June 23). In the days leading up to the EU summit, many European leaders, including the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, called on Europe’s leaders to officially grant candidate status to all three aspiring countries—Georgia as well as Ukraine and Moldova (Twitter.com/CharlesMichel, June 20). The United States Congressional Helsinki Commission made a similar appeal (Csce.gov, June 22). But this did not help Georgia’s case.
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