Georgia’s deoligarchisation bill should be sent to Venice Commission for evaluation – EU ambassador

Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia, on Thursday said that Georgia’s deoligarchisation bill, which is part of 12-point conditions set by the bloc for the country’s membership candidate status, should be sent to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission for evaluation and subsequent recommendations. 

The diplomat stated that Oliver Varhelyi, the EU commissioner, also pointed to the need during his recent visit to Georgia, and noted that “it is up to Georgia” how the situation over the ruling Georgian Dream party-proposed bill would develop. 

The ambassador said that his institution was observing the process “very closely” as the EU was scheduled to assess the fulfillment of the conditions by spring of the next year. 

He once again called on Georgian political actors to “work together” on the meeting of recommendations, and pointed to the need of an “inclusive process” with the engagement of the ruling party, the opposition and the civil sector . 

Georgia was granted European perspective by the European Council in June and was given several months and 12 conditions to meet for the membership candidate status. 

The deoligarchisation bill has been adopted with its two readings in parliament, with a single reading still ahead for the final approval. 

The ruling party claims that it had used the Ukrainian law to draft the bill and would use the recommendations issued for it. 

However, the Venice Commission recommendations for Ukrainian law are not still available.