Maia Panjikidze

Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said the Association Agreement will be signed in Vilnius November 29 at 09:00 am. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia will initialize its Association Agreement with the EU on November 29 as leaders of the EU and countries in the Eastern Partnership meet in Vilnius.

Davit Zalkaliani, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, will initialize the agreement by signing each of the one thousand pages, and according to the foreign minister a shorter version of the agreement will be published and translated.

According to the official website of the Eastern Partnership, EU will also sign a framework agreement with Georgia on participation in EU crisis management operations.

The summit will be chaired by President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, who together with President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso will represent the European Union.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite will host the summit, and President Giorgi Margvelashvili will represent Georgia.

“We continue to work on the ambitious Association Agreements including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas with partners meeting the benchmarks and steps towards facilitating and liberalising travelling between the Union and the region,” van Rompuy said.

Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said on Wednesday that the initializing ceremony for the Association Agreement will be held on November 29 at 09:00 in the morning. President of the Council of Europe and European Commission and President of Georgia will attend the ceremony.

Panjikidze and EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will initialize the political part of the agreement. Minister of Economy and Commissioner Karel De Gucht will initialize the economic part of the agreement. The same day EU and Georgia will sign the framework agreement about participation in EU’s crisis management operations.

Panjikidze said that November 28 there will be a dinner attended by heads of 28 EU member countries, which Margvelashvili will also attend. The president will hold a speech during the summit. He will meet with the presidents of France, Poland and Lithuania, and leaders of the EU.