25/03/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 22 March, the spokesman for the European External Action Service called for the independence of the judiciary in Georgia to be ensured, expressing concern at comments made by public officials against individual judges who had spoken out about a possible system for monitoring the integrity of the judiciary. “A comprehensive reform of the judiciary (...) is one of the European Commission’s recommendations (...) Georgia’s EU accession path”, the spokesman said in a press release. In his view, to address the systemic challenges in the judicial system, Georgia needs to establish a system of extraordinary integrity checks, with the involvement of international experts with a decisive role in the process, for candidates and persons currently appointed to all leading positions in the judiciary. The EU remains in close dialogue with the authorities, he added. (CG)