Brussels, 04/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Victor Dolidze, the chair of the Georgian Parliament's committee on European integration and a member of Georgian Dream (the prime minister's party), and David Darchiashvili, the former chair of this committee and a member of the UNM (the president's party), told the European Parliament on 3 September that the future of Georgia is European - despite Russia's proposal for Georgia to become a member of Russia's customs union. Stating that Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had last week proposed that Georgia sign the customs union, Dolidze said that whether this be within his government or the previous one “nobody poses the question of choosing between the EU and the customs union. We will move towards the EU and NATO.” He added that he did not know “what the content of the summit [of the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius at the end of November] will be, and if enlargement will be on the agenda or not - but that's where we are going, that's the path that is mapped out”.
Justice issue. “I hope that Vilnius will bear fruit and that we will manage to come closer to the European institutions, but given the developments (…) there is a risk of this not happening”, said Darchiashvili. In his view, Georgia is experiencing negative development and he highlighted the issues of “selective justice and violence that goes unpunished against the opposition” and also a lack of cooperation between parties. “The judicial system does not work well in Georgia”, he said, quoting the influence of ministers on judges by way of example. Risks of selective justice are closely monitored by the EU - on 21 May, it spoke publicly of its concern about the arrest of former ministers, charged with corruption (see EUROPE 10850).
However, while Dolidze acknowledged that “nothing is perfect”, he does not want to speak about selective justice. He called on Europe to come and see the situation, saying that it is not easy to understand it from Brussels, 3,000km away from Tbilisi. “Time will tell. I'm more optimistic than pessimistic”, he said. (CG/transl.fl)