Georgia hoping to receive EU candidate status in Dec

TBILISI. July 4 (Interfax) - Georgia hopes to receive EU candidate status in December, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze said.

"Georgia has met each of the 12 recommendations of the European Commission to qualify for the status. There is not a single reason to deny us candidate status in this case. There is documentary evidence for everything," Kobakhidze said at a briefing on Tuesday.

The political decision that will be made regarding Georgia in Brussels in December is unpredictable, and the risk is high, given that such decisions are endorsed based on consensus between all EU member states, he said.

"If they refuse to give us the status, that would send a bad message," Kobakhize said, adding that Georgia deserved to receive EU candidate status together with Ukraine and Moldova last year, "but the decision made in Brussels regarding us a year ago was not fair."

The EU leadership said in June that Georgia complied with only three out of 12 recommendations of the European Commission to qualify for candidate status.