Foreign agents bills “violate citizens’ dignity”, may hamper Georgia’s EU integration – public defender candidate

Levan Ioseliani, an MP of the Citizens opposition party who has been nominated for the country’s new public defender, on Monday slammed two bills on transparency of foreign influence proposed by former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party who still remain in the parliamentary majority. 

In his comments for the media, the lawmaker stressed the bills – that envisage the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they derive more than 20 percent of their incomes from abroad – “violate the dignity of Georgian citizens”, and could hamper the country’s European Union integration process amid the bloc’s forthcoming decision on the country’s membership candidate status. 

“There is not a single social group left in the country who has not protested against the draft laws, which are now being discussed in the parliament”, Ioseliani said and added the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, where the bills have been sent for opinion, was “very likely” to also negatively assess the initiatives. 

The bills that are backed by the ruling party as “democratic” are being discussed in the legislative body amid large scale public protests, with domestic and foreign actors claiming the adoption of any of the two bills could “stigmatize and restrict” the activities of domestic entities which are funded mostly by western donors.