Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili signed the application for his country to become an EU member on Thursday, 03 March 2022. This makes Georgia – after Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine – the fifth of once 15 Union republics of the Soviet Union that perished in 1991 to seek EU membership. The Prime Minister said:

Application for EU Membership is yet another milestone on the path of European integration of Georgia – it is a stage, which turns a new page in our history and continues the effort of our ancestors, which is aimed at the accession of Georgia into a common European family.