After the President of Georgia's Address to European Parliament members, Mikheil Saakashvili and the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek held joint press conference.
"Let me congratulate President Saakashvili with all the achievements. You are a very brave man and we know very well about it, but now we can say you are also a very prudent politician. Courage and prudence must go together and after your declaration, we can say it is the case of President Saakashvili", with these words Jerzy Buzek presented President of Georgia to the media, who once again stated that reforms were successful in Georgia.
Mikheil Saakashvili, on his turn, expressed his gratitude for warm welcome and noted that such attitude of the European Parliament members to Georgia makes the sence of responsibility and obligation even stronger.
"It was a great honor for me to address this great Assembly that is universal democratic European body. I was very humbled and pleasantly surprised by very warm welcome by the Parliamentarians. This gives us special task to perform, to be up to the level, not to let down the expectations that exist in this great political entity.
It is a great honor today as it is the anniversary of the Rose Revolution. Georgian revolution has survived; it survived as an idea it survived as a form of moving away from Soviet mentality of a closed society to more open, more democratic, more stable society with more positive outlook, to a society with look for the future society based on the same values as Europe shares.
You could not afford better venue to announce about our peace initiatives and about to report what we have achieved in last several years. I had an opportunity to address the European Parliament for the second time. Only Dalai Lama had this honor before. I am not comparing myself to him in any way, but of course, that really tells you the great interest and privilege showed in us", Mikheil Saakashvili stated.
Representatives of foreign media were interested, what Mikheil Saakashvili's vision was of Europe's role in regulation of relations between Russia and Georgia.
"What we really need at this stage politically from Europe beside integration is to create conditions for Russian leaders come back to talks. There is a situation when Russia does not recognize Georgian borders, Ceasefire Agreement and our government. We hope to establish more civilized relations with Russia. If Europe and United States assist in regulation of this situation, Russia starts to talk to this government, starts to gradually comply with the Ceasefire Agreement and we could gradually, get to the situation when the international low is fully restored at our territory. We know it is a long process, but we should start somewhere to get the result. And that is where Europe can play the most important role. I think we showed our readiness. Now with more cooperation we can create better climate. This is the interests of our European partners as well", President of Georgia stated.
The President of the European Parliament answered the question of media, how he evaluates the new peace initiative of President of Georgia, he once more noted that this statement, made from the high tribune of the European Parliament will guarantee stability in the whole region. Europe greats Georgia's vision and declares full support to it.
"It is very important and quite new proposal and the answer from the level of the European Union is also very important. It is a guarantee for peace and stability in the region for the future that is important for all the countries from our Eastern Partnership and also for northern Caucasus. We know very well that Georgia is a very good example of transition from former post soviet country, communist country to democratic free market economy country. We know this, and congratulations are absolutely justifiable in the case of Georgia. What about weaknesses, we must work on to help Georgia be more compatible with EU because we like it, we would like to invest to keep relations with Georgia. Compatibility is necessary with all the Eastern Partnership countries and we expect some reactions from Russia. I spent 3 days in Russia in last June. I had very deep and long discussion with Mr. President and other authorities of Russian Federation. It was a very deep discussion about the future also of a modernization of Russia; that it is necessary to go ahead with development of civil society. It is very close to this new proposal and it could go in parallel; I also gave very serious questions about Northern Caucasus. We discussed this problem for a very long time and I hope, I believe that President Medvedev is ready to solve these problems. EU and I personally, we are ready to take part in this discussion as it is very important for Europe, not only for Caucasus region," Jerzy Buzek stated.