Georgia faces European Parliament's criticism over rule of law
With 490 votes in favour and 147 against, EU lawmakers deplored "the backsliding of the rule of law as well as the growing Russian influence on the ruling party, Georgian Dream, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.'
This is the first report on Georgia as an EU candidate country, based on the European Commission's technical and political assessments from 2023 and 2024.
The document adopted in the Strasbourg hemicycle stressed the lack of legitimacy of what it calls 'the self-proclaimed authorities established by the Georgian Dream party following the rigged parliamentary elections of 26 October 2024."
Tobias Cremer, a German MEP from the Socialist and Democrats (S&D) group, has been one of the principal authors of the report. 'We see rigged elections last year in the parliamentary elections and since then we've seen ever more brutal clampdowns and crackdowns on peaceful protesters,' Cremer told Euronews.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos praised the European Parliament's report on Georgia on Tuesday evening.
"What we are witnessing in Georgia is far from anything we expect from a candidate country, Georgian democratic foundations are being eroded by the day when Georgian Dream party launched a crack down on pro-EU opposition and civil society', she said.
Unconvenient neighborhood
Last autumn's elections sparked a wave of more than six months of anti-government protests in Georgia.
One of the first voices to denounce the alleged electoral fraud was the president of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili.
'They (the Georgian Dream officials) have not been recognised by the political forces in the country because no opposition party has recognised them as winning these partly rigged elections, and nobody has entered the parliament. So it's one party and an illegitimate parliament', Zourabichvili told Euronews in December last year.
The European Parliament is also highly concerned by the wave of detentions carried out by the Georgian authorities against journalists and some members of the opposition. At least six opposition figures were arrested by the authorities in recent months.
On 24 June, politician Giorgi Vashadze of the centrist Strategy Aghmashenebeli party was sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing to testify in an official probe that Georgian Dream's critics call an act of political revenge.
The day before, three other opposition figures were handed comparable sentences after refusing to cooperate with the same parliamentary inquiry investigating alleged wrongdoings by the government of former President Mikhail Saakashvili, who is still in prison.
Georgian Dream Secretary General Kakha Kaladze dismissed allegations that any of the arrests had been politically motivated, saying politicians aren't exempt from the law.
"I think we all know very well why these people are detained. They broke the law, they didn't appear at the commission. The status of a politician or any other person cannot be an incentive to break the law," he said.
Both the EU and NATO are deeply concerned about the growing Russian intrusions in the South Caucasus region. Russia has increased its pressure on Azerbaijan, deployed more troops in Armenia, while in Georgia, it has carried out political and media interference, the European Parliament claims.
'What this report clearly shows is that the Georgian Dream government seems to be playing out the Russian playbook of disinformation, manipulation and intimidation, and that is really not going towards the membership of the European Union', said Cremer.
Russian troops attacked Georgia in August 2008, just three months after a crucial NATO summit in Bucharest that welcomed Tbilisi and Kyiv's aspirations to open membership talks. The Russian army occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia within a few weeks. These two regions are still under Moscow's control.
Since the 2008 war, the Georgian government has had to find a balance between the EU aspirations of almost 80% of its population and the understanding of the strategic priorities of its northern neighbour, Russia, especially after it started its all-out war against Ukraine in early 2022.
In fact, despite its EU candidacy, Tbilisi has not aligned with EU sanctions against Russia. In 2024, the Georgian parliament passed the foreign agents law, a legislative measure that significantly restricted the activities of foreign-funded NGOs in the country.
'I want to see Georgia in the European Union. I think it's very clear there's one aggressor in this equation, and that aggressor is sitting in the Kremlin. And we also understand that this is the reason why Moscow is so aggressive, not just in Ukraine but also in the Caucasus, and also within our own democracies,' said Cremer.
Full EU membership by 2030 remains Tbilisi's goal
Georgia applied for membership in March 2022 with Ukraine and Moldova, and received the candidacy in December 2023.
Only some months later, growing concerns and disagreements between the EU and the Georgian government prompted the two sides to freeze the enlargement process.
As a result, the financial support from the European Peace Facility, worth €30 million, was suspended in 2024, and no support is planned for this year.
However, Georgia's First Deputy Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili told Euronews in May that the Tbilisi government's target is full-fledged membership by 2030.
'We understand it's a long process, but we are fully focused on implementing this significant reform, and we are still loyal to this reform, and this process goes in a very active way,' said Davitashvili.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's participation in the 6th Summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Tirana on 16 May marked a thaw in the strained relations between Tbilisi and the European Union, after both parties hit pause on the South Caucasus country's EU accession talks.
On that occasion, Kobakhidze told journalists that 'there was a period of limited communication (between Georgia and the EU) and it seems our European partners were eager to restore ties with Georgia.'
The Georgian prime minister told Euronews in May that his country plays a 'vital role for Europe".
'Everyone should recognise Georgia's strategic importance for Europe, especially for the eurozone. Our role in the region is significant, and that's why the need for dialogue with Georgian leaders is increasingly acknowledged,' he said.
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