MOSCOW, May 20 /TASS/. Georgia and Ukraine are miscalculating if they hope to be granted a visa-free regime with the European Union at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, told Rossiya 24 TV news channel on Wednesday.
"The purpose of this summit is to keep this initiative afloat. Everybody is pinning personal hopes on the event but I personally do not expect much," Chizhov said. According to him, the ambitious hopes of Kiev and Tbilisi to get more money and a visa-free regime at the summit will remain vain wishes because the European Union does not feel this way. The European Union is not going to overestimate the Eastern Partnership’s historical importance either, the Russian diplomat told Rossiya 24.
Out of 15 criteria which the European Union formulates for each country seeking a visa-free regime with EU, Georgia has met 7 while Ukraine has met only 2, according to the European Commission’s latest reports.
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