Natia Mezvrishvili, a member of the For Georgia party created by former Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia, said on Thursday that the ruling Georgian Dream party was “looking for reasons” to “dissolve” the working group set up in June to ensure the fulfillment of the criteria had set by the European Commission for Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status next year. 

Mezvrishvili said that the ruling party “had banned” the US Embassy and NGOs from participation in the working group. 

“The ruling party cited an alleged interference of the US Embassy in the Georgian judiciary as the reason for banning the embassy representatives. Now they are trying to hamper the NGOs participation in the group”, Mezvrishvili said. 

The ruling party had refused to invite the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy NGO to participate in the working process, stating that the NGO was “politically biased”. 

The United National Movement, Strategy Agmashenebeli and the Lelo opposition parties refused earlier this month to participate in the working group, stating that the GD “was not interested in fulfilling the criteria”. 

The GD slammed the parties for their decision to launch a parallel process, accusing them of taking steps “against Georgia’s EU integration”.  

Georgia was granted EU perspective and several months by the European Council in June to address several issues, including judiciary reforms and de-oligarchization, to receive the membership candidate status next year.