Events
Georgian Prime Minister Assesses “Rose” Reforms November 28, 2005 / Brussels
Two years after Georgia’s “Rose Revolution,” the country is prospering in its democratization and economic liberalization, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli told a Brussels audience on November 28. The German Marshall Fund co-hosted the discussion with the Centre for European Reform (CER). Noghaideli cited an 8.5 percent economic growth rate, the public’s growing faith in public institutions, and citizens’ 75 percent support for EU aspirations, as encouraging signs for Georgia’s future, of which more than 70 percent of Georgians are optimistic, he said. “Democracy can deliver,” Noghaideli said. “Democracy can and does improve people’s lives. As a democracy, we know that this is the only path.” Noghaideli said Georgia is committed to peace in South Ossetia — one of the “frozen conflicts” in that region of the world — though the country is facing obstacles from Russia regarding the negotiating framework, which Georgia wants to enlarge. Although reform will happen regardless, Noghaideli said, NATO and EU membership are Georgia’s goals. “Today, there are three NATO members on the Black Sea,” Noghaideli said. “With our hard work, we hope to increase that number before the end of the decade.” CER’s Mark Leonard said Georgia will have to work harder than the ten accession countries did in the 2004 enlargement because “Europe isn’t in a visionary or outwardly looking frame of mind…. Also, there is not a single Georgian narrative of why Euro should care.” “For many European officials, they see the Rose Revolution as the beginning of a process,” Leonard said, noting that many Georgians see it as a culmination.



