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the EU opened for Georgia the EU membership perspective on June 24,
2022, and granted the EU candidacy in December 2023.
It might be interesting for readers to know that the European
Union has established its diplomatic representations in more than
130 countries since 2009, including Georgia. The representations are
headed by EU ambassadors. The representations replaced European
Commission delegations which operated in partner countries before
2009. Such a European Commission delegation has been operational in
Georgia since 1995.

European Parliament

The European Parliament is an EU institution of EU citizens’
representatives and an avenue for deliberations on current and future
EU topics.

The set of buildings of the European Parliament is called “Espace
Leopold” and represents an impressive architectural composition.
Visitors to the place may notice a big crowd of European Parliament
members, administrative staff, journalists, students, ordinary citizens
and visitors. The “Espace Leopold” is the place for committee meetings
while parliamentary plenaries take place in the Strasbourg building of
the European Parliament. In Brussels buildings, there are committee
hearing halls, rooms for official meetings, waiting sections and
exhibition spaces, as well as branches of banks, cafes, a few shops and
even a barbershop.

The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 extended the legal authority of the
European Parliament to more than 40 new sectors such as agriculture,
relations with EU partner states, security and justice, and commercial
policies, etc., In addition, the Parliament acquired an important role
in EU decision-making, as it co-decides together with the Council on
initiatives which are submitted by the European Commission. Also, the
Parliament approves the candidature of the European Commission’s
president and the College of Commissioners, as well as a candidate for
the President of the European Council.