Brussels - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso confirmed on Monday that the European Union plans to sign an association agreement with Georgia in August this year.
In talking to reporters after negotiations with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Barroso expressed hope that the accord would be signed no later than August.
Earlier in the day, European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen had confirmed that, at an EU-Russia summit in Brussels on Jan. 28, the two sides came to an agreement to hold expert-level talks on the EU’s Eastern Partnership project at which the EU would be told about potential effects of the Eastern Partnership on the Russian economy and argue that the Eastern Partnership is not an anti-Russian project but aims to build closer ties between its member countries.