From Dreaming of to Dealing with Europe: How the Political Elite in Georgia Frames and Contests the EU

How do Georgian political elites frame the EU and EU integration in their discourse? Why do they simultaneously support and contest the EU? How does the membership perspective recently opened for Georgia alter this discourse and contestation? In this chapter, we argue that the EU became the cornerstone of domestic political struggle in Georgia. Local elites regard the EU and EU integration as a strategic process, producing new opportunities and challenges. They contextualize events related to the EU and EU integration through the lenses of their interests and expectations. This reveals the limits of the EU’s transformative power, and therefore conditionality, even within the membership perspective, especially in the liminal periphery with competing forces such as Russia. Along with secondary data regarding Georgia–EU relations, the chapter draws on original interviews with members of the Georgian parliament, both from the ruling party and the opposition, and their public statements.