European Commission enlargement report offers “clear path” for Georgia’s re-engagement – Vice President Borrell

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, on Wednesday said the Commission’s report for the bloc’s enlargement included a “clear path for Georgia’s re-engagement”.

In his speech during the presentation of the package which includes reports on individual states, the official stressed the re-engagement was possible if there was a “will from Georgia’s leadership”.

The official highlighted the “first signs of concrete commitment” would be the repeal of controversial laws on transparency of foreign influence and on family values and protection of minors, which he claimed have a “chilling effect on civil society and media organizations”, and are “discriminatory”.

Speaking about Georgia’s Saturday’s parliamentary elections, the official said the poll had been marked by “serious irregularities, and this needs to be investigated and addressed in a transparent and independent manner”.

He also claimed independent observers “have not declared the elections to be free and fair, neither the contrary. So we are in a zone that requires investigation in order to clarify what has happened, which is the scope of the irregularities, and how this has been affecting the result”.

Borrell claimed the developments had “consolidated a trend that we have seen by the Georgian authorities in the recent months, moving the country away from the European Union, away from its values and principles’.