Georgia in the EU by 2008?

In three years' time, Georgia will be invited to join both the European Union and NATO, says the country's president.

The President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, expects his country to be invited to join both the EU and NATO by 2008. In recent a speech at New York's Columbia University, Saakashvili said that "NATO and EU membership is absolutely realistic of course, but it takes time, it takes a change of perception within the organisations. This process is irreversible". In his opinion, "in the longer run, every country that is European by its history and culture, European by its aspirations, by its self-identity, by its goals, will inevitably be part of every major European institution".
"Definitely we will get to the EU faster than people will go to Mars - and they are going to go to Mars quite soon," he added with a chuckle.
Georgia was among the first former Soviet republics to declare independence in 1991. In May 2005, US President Bush saluted the country as a "beacon of democracy". Since 2004, Georgia has been part of the European Neighbourhood Policy.