Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the progress made in implementing the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of that agreement on the prospects for economic growth in Georgia.

​Georgia is making good progress on implementation of the ambitious political, governance and economic reforms agreed under the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, which entered into force on 1 July 2016. The Association Agreement, and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement that accompanies it and which entered into force in 2014, supports Georgia’s economic growth by providing both EU market access and impetus for modernising reforms such as improved rule of law, public sector administration, vocational education and judicial reform.

The British Government monitors progress closely and encourages and supports the Georgian Government to maintain momentum across the board and in particular on judicial reform, where more work is needed by Georgia to further embed democratic institutions and attract investment. In the six months following the introduction of the Georgia-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area in September 2014, Georgian exports to the EU rose by 12%, with exports of some products doubling or tripling. [Source: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/may/tradoc_153435.pdf]