The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced on Monday 22 March the continuation of the EU mediation between the Georgian political parties.
“We will see how we can be more effective, but this mediation effort is not over, it will continue”, he explained to the media at the end of the Foreign Affairs Council, during which the situation in Georgia was discussed.
The High Representative said that the EU would continue to support this mediation, “because Georgia cannot be stalled in a bipolarisation that prevents the government from working and the country from having the stability it needs to face the important reforms that need to be made”.
On the same day, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, met with his personal envoy to Georgia, Christian Danielsson. Danielsson will visit the country again later this week to continue discussions with all parties concerned, an EU source said.
According to the same source, the Georgian sides made “significant progress” on three of the five points of discussion: electoral reform, judicial reform, and power-sharing in Parliament. However, there are still two points of disagreement: the politicised judiciary and future elections. “It is essential that all actors fully engage in the mediation, which will resume later this week”, the source warned.
“We call on all political parties in Georgia to take responsibility, to think in the interest of the Georgian people, and to reach the necessary political agreements in order to face the important challenges they have in front of them”, including the fight against Covid-19, economic recovery, and security, Borrell stressed to the media. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)