Gruusia euroopastumise protsessi stagnatsioon

Abstract

This master’s thesis examines the stagnation of Georgia’s Europeanisation process from 2012 to 2025. Although Georgia has long presented itself as one of the most pro-European countries in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood, its formal European orientation has not resulted in consistent and substantive convergence with European Union norms and practices. The central research question of the thesis is why Georgia’s Europeanisation process has stagnated The thesis combines Europeanisation theory with historical institutionalism. Europeanisation theory helps to analyse the mechanisms of EU influence, including conditionality, norm transfer and selective adaptation, while historical institutionalism draws attention to path dependence, critical junctures and the long-term effects of earlier political choices. Methodologically, the thesis relies on a qualitative case study and process tracing. The empirical analysis is based on Georgian government programmes and strategic documents, EU reports and assessments, and public statements by Georgian and EU political officials. The thesis argues that the main reason for Georgia’s stagnating Europeanisation not only from external geopolitical pressure, but primarily in the limited willingness of Georgian Dream to implement reforms that could constrain its control over political institutions and political resources. The analysis shows that Georgia’s Europeanisation has developed unevenly: initial progress in 2012–2014 was followed by selective implementation in 2014–2021, temporary acceleration after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and clear stagnation in 2024–2025. The thesis concludes that Georgia’s Europeanisation has remained largely instrumental and politically mediated, while Russian influence and domestic elite interests have increasingly limited deeper institutional transformation.