Georgië: EU zendt grenswaarnemers (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Georgia says the EU would send border monitors to its rebel territories if Russia agrees, with Tbilisi also leveraging its relations with international clubs like the WTO and NATO to reunify the country, Georgian foreign minister Gela Bezhuashvili told EUobserver.

"The conflicts are no longer frozen. We have changed this paradigm, because the status quo is not sustainable, as everybody understands in the EU...We know there is a risk of putting them at boiling point, but we are slowly, slowly trying to melt these conflicts and find a result," the minister said in Brussels this week.

The Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from the rest of the country in the early 1990s. Open hostilities ceased in 1994 but there has been a string of recent skirmishes and Moscow is backing the rebels by giving out Russian passports, trading via illegal checkpoints and keeping 2,500 Russian "peacekeeping" troops on Georgian soil.

But with Russia keen to join the World Trade Organisation in 2007, WTO member Georgia is refusing to give Moscow its say-so unless it allows Georgian customs officials to control Abkhazia-Russia and South Ossetia-Russia trade in a move that would require international back-up on the model of existing EU controls on separatist smugglers in Moldova.

"If Russia said yes, I have no doubt the EU would jump in," Mr Bezhuashvili explained, adding "everybody in the EU understands us on the WTO...If the EU stands on the Roki Tunnel [the South-Ossetia-Russia checkpoint] this means we come to the Moldova model, with transparency and complete control over the borders."

In the wider EU-Georgia strategy, Brussels is also planning to spend up to €40 million on opening EU information centres in rebel territories and helping legitimise trade with the outside world in a move designed to show people what they are missing as the Georgian economy grows and moves toward EU trade integration and membership of the NATO security club.

Georgia is currently part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which offers the prospect of deep free trade agreements but no promise of future EU accession. Meanwhile, NATO is planning to invite Georgia to start a Membership Action Plan in 2008 that could see Tbilisi join up six or so years down the line.

But with the Georgian capital already festooned with EU flags, Mr Bezhuashvili says there is a debate inside the EU on changing ENP parameters to recognise the difference between eastern European countries, which are free to apply for EU membership under the EU treaty, and North African ENP states, which cannot apply on geographical grounds.

"We are different than Tunisia or Algeria," the minister said. "We're not talking about [EU] membership now, but about membership in the long run. Countries that put a long-term perspective of membership should be treated differently. That's not just my view, but also the view of officials of other countries. I know that inside the EU there is an internal debate."

EU flags over Tbilisi

"The flags over the capital of Georgia are our aspiration. It's a good thing to prepare your people for the place they are going back to, the family of Europe," he added. "You know how much the European framework cares about minorities, the distribution of authority...Abkhazia can be a paradise if they use the European approach rather than the Russian federal model."

EU-Georgia cooperation is not without its worries on both sides, however. On the one hand some EU states, such as Germany and Italy, are wary of annoying Russia amid already-strained EU-Russia relations. Georgia is concerned that deeper EU engagement with rebels could be used to claim false legitimacy in international eyes.

Mr Bezhuashvili has written a letter to EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini urging him to speed up talks on an EU-Georgia visa facilitation deal, saying the fact the EU has already inked a travel agreement with Russia will mean Georgian separatists with Russian passports will find it easier to enter the EU than normal Georgian people.

"It needs to be clearly explained that [better EU relations with rebel entities] is only possible if they go together with Georgia - we go to Europe and we give you a European perspective but that means you have to be more responsive to Georgia's proposals," he said.