Germany, France, the EU and Georgia sign a new multi-year reform commitment that will support Georgia’s EU ambition in green energy transition 

The two largest Member States of the EU, represented by German Ambassador Peter Fischer and French Ambassador Sheraz Gasri and the respective state-owned banks KfW (GER) and AFD (FRA) and the EU through the European Delegation to Georgia, signed a declaration with the Georgian Government for a multi-year reform programme called “Green Transition for Georgia”. The Georgian institutions taking part in the programme are the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia as well as the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC) and the National Bank of Georgia.

The policy reform programme comprises eleven reform areas that focus on “green transition” topics ranging from renewable energy, green hydrogen, carbon pricing, smart mobility, combatting pollution to sustainable finance. “Green Transition for Georgia” is designed as a policy-based lending facility whereby Georgia benefits from concessional budget financing in return for successfully implementing EU policies that it has committed to and that will align the country more and more to EU standards.

“Green Transition for Georgia” is the successor programme of the successful “Georgian Energy Sector Reform Program” that France through AFD, Germany through KfW and the EU have implemented together with the Georgian partner ministries and institutions between 2018 and 2023. Under the first programme, AFD and KfW invested 641million EUR. The EU support in form of grants for technical assistance amounts to ca. 8,5m EUR. The first programme was instrumental in boosting key primary and secondary legislation related to energy efficiency and power market. The ambition and spectrum of the successor programme are, however, much wider and are expected to have a positive impact on the day-to-day businesses of Georgia’s economy. 

On 8 November 2023, the European Commission issued a recommendation to grant Georgia EU candidate status. The new German-EU-French reform programme is a concrete example of how further alignment with the EU policies can be successfully put into practice. Furthermore, it is a clear sign of commitment by the Georgian Government to pursue its way towards the EU.