On Thursday 25 April, the European Parliament strongly condemned the reintroduction of the controversial draft law on the ‘transparency of foreign influence’ in Georgia, calling on the Georgian Parliament to halt parliamentary proceedings and on the Georgian government to withdraw the text.
According to Parliament, this law “would impose debilitating restrictions on civil society and independent media and thereby undermine the possibility of their operating freely”. The draft law is “incompatible with EU values and democratic principles, runs against Georgia’s ambitions for EU membership, damages Georgia’s international reputation and endangers the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration”, warn MEPs in the joint resolution they adopted (425 votes in favour, 25 against and 30 abstentions).
Thus, according to Parliament “EU accession negotiations should not be opened as long as this law is part of Georgia’s legal order”. MEPs urge the Georgian government to return to its European course.
The European Parliament also calls on the Commission and the Member States to assess the impact this draft law is likely to have on the EU’s role as a donor in Georgia and to communicate clearly to the Georgian Government and Parliament what that impact might be and what it might mean for EU funding in general. It also asks the Commission to rapidly assess the impact of the draft law in terms of Georgia’s fulfilment of the criteria for visa liberalisation, in particular the fundamental rights criterion.
On 17 April, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi called on Georgia to refrain from adopting the law (see EUROPE 13393/35).
To see the resolution, go to https://aeur.eu/f/by8 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)