Brussels, 30/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - In an open letter on Wednesday 28 October, 15 MEPs from the EPP, S&D, ALDE and ECR Groups expressed their “great concern” at the recent developments in Georgia “that endanger the country's stability and democracy” a few months ahead of its parliamentary elections, and call on Georgia's leaders to reverse this trend.
“We call upon the present leadership of Georgia and its ruling coalition to reverse these negative trends which are threatening the fairness of the forthcoming parliamentary elections and are putting Georgia's European path in grave danger”, the MEPs state. They also call on the European Commission and European External Action Service (EEAS) to follow up on this issue with the Georgian authorities.
In their open letter, the MEPs say they are “extremely worried” about the controversy over the ownership of the independent television station Rustavi 2 and the freeze on all its assets by the Georgian judicial authorities, while awaiting the verdict on its ownership. In the MEPs' opinion, “this will significantly limit the potential level playing field and threaten the fairness of the 2016 parliamentary elections”.
“Shocked” by the recent violent attacks on the regional offices of the opposition, the MEPs call on the Georgian government to find the perpetrators of this vandalism and bring them to justice.
The MEPs state their concern at the continuous prosecutions of leadership and members of the former ruling party in Georgia, and at “numerous facts of frequent abuse of pre-trial detention, political interference into the activities of the prosecution, political pre-selection of judges, and systematic abuse of the presumption of innocence”.
They also regret the statements made by individuals from Georgia's ruling coalition that tried to “rehabilitate” Stalin. The MEPs call on the coalition to “show due respect to the memory of the millions of innocent victims of Stalinism, including in Georgia itself”.
At the opening of the European Parliament's plenary session on Monday 26 October, the EPP Group tried - unsuccessfully - to have the situation in Georgia included on the Parliament's agenda.
In a press release on 26 October, the EU delegation in Georgia called on the state institutions and political actors to refrain from any other measure or from statements that could increase the tension and favour polarisation. The press release stated that the EU expected the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and freedom of the media to be applied in practice in Georgia. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)