Charles Michel, the European Council president, on Thursday welcomed Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili’s decision earlier that day to pardon the imprisoned head of the opposition-minded Mtavari channel Nika Gvaramia, assessing the move as an “essential step towards depolarisation” in Georgia.

Michel also welcomed Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili’s “reaffirmation” that Georgia would not seek to adopt the foreign influence law, which was rejected in April after large-scale public protests. 

The statement said the ruling party’s announcement earlier  this week not to pass the deoligarchisation bill until December was a “positive step”, in the aftermath of the Venice Commission’s opinion on a “systematic approach” to the issue. 

“The European Council’s decision to grant Georgia the European perspective last year creates a positive momentum to reform so as to advance on its European path”, said the statement. 

President’s pardon of Gvaramia, who was convicted last year for abuse of power while at the helm of the Rustavi 2 TV channel in 2015 and 2019 and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, came a day after the EU Commission’s oral report, which pointed to “no progress” on media pluralism - one of 12 conditions outlined by the bloc last year for granting Georgia the EU membership candidate status.