On April 23, 2013 EU-Georgia Business Council (EUGBC) organized a meeting of members with Ambassador Philip Dimitrov, Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia at Tbilisi Marriott Hotel. The meeting was opened by Badri Japaridze, Vice-Chairman of EUGBC Board. Mr. Japaridze thanked the Ambassador for kindly accepting the invitation and taking part in the meeting with Georgian business community. He also expressed appreciation to the guests attending the meeting. Badri Japaridze underlined that the EU-Georgia relations has entered an important phase given that the negotiations on the Association Agreement (AA), including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) is basically finalized. He asked the Ambassador to provide his informed view to the audience on the current state of play of AA/DCFTA.

Ambassador Philip Dimitrov thanked the participants of the meeting for their interest. Mr. Dimitrov stated that he “keeps EU-Georgia Business Council close to his heart” and is happy to meet with the Council members on a regular basis as invited. Mr. Ambassador briefed the invited guests on the current state of play in AA/DCFTA. He stated that the text of the agreement is basically closed, although few technical issues still have to be specified by the negotiating sides. Mr. Dimitrov pointed out that both Georgian and European parties have worked hard to finalize the agreement text, which is intended to be initialized at the Eastern Partnership Vilnius Summit in November 2013. Ambassador Dimitrov thereby clarified that initialization does not imply signing and entering the agreement into force. The latter is a lengthy process, which will take considerable time along with implementation and institutionalization of the required reforms.

The meeting was followed by a lively question and answer session and discussion.