On December 3, 2019, EU-LISTCO project partner Freie Universität Berlin organised a public panel discussion entitled, “What’s in it for us? The EU and Georgia’s Membership Perspective,” in collaboration with the Georgia Embassy in Berlin and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The event took place at the Georgian Embassy and the panel addressed a diverse audience of over seventy attendees, including representatives of the German Bundestag, national embassies, political foundations, non-governmental organisations, and academia.

Elguja Khokrishvili, ambassador of the Republic of Georgia to Germany, and Thomas Schrapel, director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation South Caucasus, kicked off the event with welcome remarks, which was then followed by a panel debate with Vakhtan Makharoblishvili, first deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Georgia; Tanja Börzel, professor at the Freie Universität Berlin; Davit Aprasidze, professor of political science at Ilia State University; and Viktoria Palm, project manager at the Institute for European Politics. Thomas Risse, professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, moderated the discussion.

Panellists discussed the transformative power of the EU in Georgia—but also the limits thereof—with a focus on what’s been achieved so far and what the future holds for EU-Georgian relations. The event title purposely included the mention of “us” to allow panellists to analyse different interpretations from the perspective of the EU, Georgia, and Europeans more broadly. The discussion zoomed in on how the EU can foster resilience in Georgia as an external actor, and how the key is to create a tailored approach to local circumstances. Georgia’s lack of EU membership brings disadvantages to the relationship on both sides, and without any perspective future membership, the EU runs the risk of damaging relations with Georgia and potentially producing instability within its own neighbourhood. Despite Georgia retaining a high level of EU support, scepticism for the union is growing. Panellists underscored that closer attention should be paid to Eurosceptic voices.

Overall, the outlook on Georgia’s future relationship with the EU was optimistic on all sides, and the event concluded with an engaging Q&A session with the audience. Discussions continued into the event reception, which was supplied with Georgian delicacies. The EU-LISTCO consortium and the Freie Universität Berlin would like to thank the Georgian Embassy in Berlin and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for a fruitful collaboration and a great event.