Strasbourg, 26/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission called on Georgia on Wednesday 25 November not to let slacken the momentum built up in terms of democracy.
During a plenary session debate of the European Parliament, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides made reference to the elections due to be held in October 2016: “We expect the independence, integrity and freedom of the institutions, including the constitutional court, as well as the rule of law and human rights to be fully respected”.
Several MEPs joined him in this call. At the end of October, 15 MEPs from the EPP, S&D, ALDE and ECR Groups wrote an open letter in which they said they were “extremely worried” about the possible take-over of the independent television station Rustavi 2 and the freezing of all its means by the courts while awaiting the ruling on ownership (see EUROPE 11422). Stylianides also highlighted the pre-trial detention of a number of opposition activists.
MEP Jaromir Stetina (EPP, Czech Republic) expressed his concern at the defence of Stalin by members of the ruling coalition and the numerous demonstrations that followed. His S&D colleague Victor Bostinaru (Romania) spoke of attempts by Russia to destabilise the country and called on the EU to support Georgia's territorial integrity and its efforts to assert its independence. He also highlighted the “clear pro-European” stance demonstrated by the Georgian people. It is an Eastern Partnership country which “really committed itself to a European future five years ago. I would not have expected these developments”, stated Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland).
Stylianides pointed out that the visa liberalisation process depended on the findings of the monitoring mission to Georgia at the end of September/start of October and the information that the Georgian government will provide in December on how the reforms are progressing. The Commission will then be in a position to bring forward a legislative proposal, he said, in response to Anna Elzbieta Fotyga (ECR, Poland) who backed liberalisation of the visa regime. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)