TBILISI, DFWatch–The EU Commission is sending a team of experts to Georgia in mid-October in order to evaluate the implementation of the action plan for visa liberalization, according to Georgia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

This was the outcome of a meeting in Brussels between Georgian negotiators headed by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Tamar Beruchashvili and Stefano Manservisi, the EU Commission’s Director General for Home Affairs.

The action plan was agreed in February and consists of a set of requirements in terms of data safety, border management, migration, public order, security and human rights, in addition to legislative adjustments.

Georgia has already fulfilled some of the requirements and last year achieved an agreement about simplified visa procedures with the EU.

An agreement about visa free travel would allow Georgians to travel to Europe without a visa, and is part of a wider process towards signing an Association Agreement with the EU, which may also include free trade.

The Association Agreement will be initialized at some time before the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in November.

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said that he expects the agreement to be signed by spring 2014.