TBILISI

The European Union (EU) has pledged funds to Georgia to help support an economy badly damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular to improve the ex-Soviet country’s transport infrastructure and logistics connectivity.

The announcement was made during the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi’s visit to Georgia. The 3.9 billion euro aid package consists of a 1.17 billion euro grant and a loan.

The European Commission has put forward a 2.3 billion euro ($2.72 billion) economic and investment plan for Eastern Partnership countries, with the potential to mobilise up to 17 billion euros in public and private investments “focusing on recovery, resilience and reform.” Georgia’s share will come out of this funding pool.

The EU said it has identified connectivity as Georgia’s key vulnerability, and its share of the investment plan would be targeted at improving transportation, infrastructure, access to electricity and internet, as well as links across the Black Sea to benefit from its “unused” potential.

“We have discovered that the main obstacle, the main weakness in the Georgian economy is the lack of the concept of connectivity,” Varhelyi told reporters.

“Be it roads and railways, be it the untapped potential that exists in the Black Sea region, be it connectivity to major electricity and internet networks, all of these aspects have great potential and can move Georgia’s economy forward and transform it into a new dimension,” he added.

The Eastern Partnership was created in 2009 with the aim of strengthening and deepening political and economic relations between the EU, its member states, and six countries in the bloc’s so-called “Eastern Neighborhood” — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.