Semnebi: EU plans to go on working in Abkhazia

Today, the city of Sukhumi has been the venue of the meeting of Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, with Peter Semnebi, European Union's Special Representative in Southern Caucasus. As reported by Mr Semnebi, the EU wants to continue and scale up its work in Abkhazia.

"A year ago, a decision was made to increase the EU staff here, to appoint a person from my team in charge of political issues, PR, etc.; a person who will spend a lot of time in Abkhazia. But, for clear reasons, that decision was not fulfilled, but it remains valid," Mr Semnebi has noted.

However, in his opinion, for this purpose, the presence of the UN in Abkhazia is desirable. "I don't say that should the Nations be absent, we should not contact at all, but our priority is to support our presence somehow by the United Nations," said Peter Semnebi.

In his turn, Sergey Shamba has noted that the EU should revise its attitude to Abkhazia. "The fact that the EU keeps declaring its support to territorial integrity of Georgia, that it would never recognize Abkhazia, and rejects visas to our citizens who want to travel on humanitarian issues and under educational projects, has built up just a negative opinion about the EU," said Mr Shamba.

Speaking about the problems with visas, Mr Semnebi has noted that "the EU has no uniform approach to this issue; it is rather complex and linked with many international duties, etc.; therefore, it should be treated cautiously."