Four parliamentary groups, independent MPs announce separate draft bill for Georgia’s EU candidacy

Four parliamentary groups, Strategy Agmashenebeli, the United National Movement, Lelo and the Republican Party, as well as independent MPs – Tamar Kordzaia, Tako Charkviani, Armaz Akhvlediani, Shalva Shavgulidze and Nato Chkheidze, on Monday announced they had drafted a separate bill for Georgia to meet the 12 conditions had set by the European Commission for the country’s membership candidate status next year. 

The opposition groups and MPs have stated that “completing the 12 recommendations of the European Commission, obtaining candidate status and then becoming a member of the European Union is a historic opportunity and main task for Georgia”, noting that their draft bill had been elaborated through the cooperation with the civil sector and would be presented to the public and then initiated to the state legislature this month. 

In their statement, the opposition said that the ruling Georgian Dream party “is not willing” to meet the EU conditions, as the party “had initially refused” to meet the conditions which concerned de-oligarchization, judiciary and electoral reforms.  

“At the same time, the Georgian Dream launched an informational attack on the pro-Western opposition spectrum, non-governmental organizations, ambassadors, US and EU institutions, using the Russian hybrid warfare method, under the pretext that all of the above wanted to start a war in Georgia and open a second front on the background of Russia’s war in Ukraine.. Moreover, one of the main messages of the leaders of the ruling party to the public was that receiving the candidate status is related to joining the war and not to the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission”, said the statement.

The statement also said that the ruling party “grossly limited” the participation of Western-funded authoritative non-governmental organizations (International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy) in the parliamentary working groups for EU candidate status.