Page 8 - bne IntelliNews Georgia country report October 2017

2.3 Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldovan MPs ask for EU membership perspective
Six Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldovan MPs have issued a communique asking the EU to offer their countries a membership perspective at the next Eastern Partnership summit in November.
All three countries have signed deep and comprehensive free trade agreements (DCFTAs) with the bloc and have been working on meeting the EU's democracy and economic standards. Many see the two-speed Eastern Partnership, which comprises of more Europe-centred countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, but also of Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia, as a symptom of Brussels' expansion fatigue. In the absence of political feasibility for further bloc expansion, the scheme ensures that the bloc's eastern flank is nevertheless aligned with its values and markets.
In the communique, the six authors ask that the EU open a membership perspective at the upcoming summit, that a new European investment plan be introduced and that Brussels supports their participation in EU agencies and community programmes.
The development comes with the European Parliament having prepared a draft report recommending further integration between the bloc and its eastern neighbours by abolishing roaming charges and developing high-capacity broadband.
2.4 Saakashvili joins forces with opposition leader Tymoshenko to oust Poroshenko
Stateless former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has promised to join forces with opposition leader and former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to oust President Petro Poroshenko, whom he accused of failing to fulfill promises made during the Maidan protests.
Speaking outside a hotel in Lviv on September 12, Saakashvili said that he was not seeking the presidency for himself but was going to support Tymoshenko in the presidential election slated for March 2019. The president has been embarrassed and his position weakened by Saakashvili's stunt. But some commentators have accused Saakashvili of great irresponsibility for breaching the law in the way he did.
"I am fighting against rampant corruption, against the fact that oligarchs are in full control of Ukraine again, against the fact that Maidan has been betrayed," Saakashvili told journalists at an impromptu press conference on the street.
Saakashvili was served legal notice at the hotel on August 12 by Ukrainian authorities for having forced his way across the border from Poland at the weekend. Ukrainian border guards and police presented him with an official document detailing his alleged violation.
Poroshenko’s decision to make Saakashvili stateless in July (he gave up his Georgian citizenship after the president made him governor of Odessa) has
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