Residents of Tbilisi gathered at the presidential residence to demonstrate Georgia's desire for European integration. The country's President Salome Zurabishvili signed a document accepting recommendations for obtaining EU candidate status.
“This is our response to Russia, this is our response to the occupation, this is our response to all the humiliations, this is the victory of all those who fought it, who survived it. This day is for all of us who share the great desire for Georgia to become a member of the civilized family called European civilization, European culture based on our culture and identity,” Zurabishvili said during her speech.
On November 8, the European Commission recommended that the EU Council grant Georgia candidate status for accession to the European Union.
In August 2008, hostilities took place between Georgia, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation and the self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it supported, on the other, which ended in a ceasefire.
