After the Maastricht Treaty on creation of the European Union, Georgia deepened its ties with the EU through a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) signed in 1996.

[6] In April 2023, a nationwide poll by the International Republican Institute found that 89 percent of Georgians support joining the EU, the highest number recorded for years.

[8] In July 2006 the European Union referred to then recent developments in South Ossetia zone of and to the Resolution of the Georgian Parliament on Peacekeeping Forces Stationed in the Conflict Zones, which was adopted on 18 July 2006 as follows: The European Union is deeply concerned about continuing tension between Georgia and Russia and recent incidents in South Ossetia, which do not contribute to stability and freedom of movement.

The European Union emphasises the importance of ensuring freedom of movement of goods and people, in particular by keeping the border crossing at Zemo Larsi open.

[13] On 2 October 2006, a joint statement on the agreed text of the Georgia-European Union Action Plan within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was issued.

[98] This view has been explicitly expressed on several occasions as links to the United States, EU and NATO have been strengthened in an attempt to move away from the Russian sphere of influence.

On 11 November 2010, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze announced that Georgia wants to cooperate with Ukraine in their attempt to join the European Union.

[101] Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a press conference in Brussels on 27 June 2014 that Georgia could be a full EU member within 5–10 years.

[116] Borrell also noted that it seemed that Georgia's compatibility with the EU's efforts to have a joint approach on priority issues “was not very high”, and the direction required to be improved.

[117] On 6 October 2023, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković highlighted his support for granting Georgia EU candidate status during the European Political Community Summit in Granada, Spain.

[118] On 12 October 2023, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called EU's 2022 rejection of membership candidate status for Georgia "very disappointing" and "unfair decision" in light of granting the candidacy to Moldova and Ukraine.

[123] However, following the Georgian government's approval of legislation which would require non-governmental organizations to register as foreign agents or "organizations carrying the interests of a foreign power" and disclose the sources of their income if the funds they receive from abroad amount to more than 20% of their total revenue, which led to widespread protests in the country, the European Council stated in June 2024 that this represented "backsliding on the steps set out in the Commission’s recommendation for candidate status" and that the accession process would be de facto on hold until the government changes course.

[129] In June 2012, the EU and Georgia began a visa liberalisation dialogue to allow for visa-free travel of Georgian citizens to the European Union.

Thus, Georgia will take another step towards visa-free travel to the Schengen area through an EU-funded project which will help to increase the capacity of the Georgian authorities in the field of integrated border management and migration.

[131] In December 2015, the Commission issued a progress report that found that Georgia met all the conditions for its citizens be granted visa-free travel to the Schengen area.

[134][135] On 8 March 2017 the Official EU Journal published a legislation allowing Georgians owning biometric passports to travel to the Schengen Area visa-free.

[136] The legislation came into full effect on 28 March 2017, allowing Georgian citizens to travel for short periods to most EU member countries without a visa.