Georgia will receive EU candidate status thanks to its people, not gov’t – opposition MP

Khatia Dekanoidze, an independent MP in the Georgian parliament, on Tuesday said the country would receive the European Union membership candidate status by the end of this year, noting it would be the “merit of the Georgian people, not  the current government”. 

 

In her comments in the legislative body, the lawmaker had also accused the ruling party representatives of using the “Bolshevik” terminology in terms of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, in response to the government’s claims they had “prevented” the country’s “ukrainization” and turning it into a “battlefield”. 

 

She also said the ruling party MP Irakli Chikovani had spread “false information” about the impressions of the rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe who came to Georgia last month to evaluate the country’s fulfilling the conditions outlined for the bloc’s membership candidate status. 

 

“In the report, the rapporteurs say Georgia is at a crossroads with regard to European integration. They express concerns that the process of reforms and European integration in Georgia is at a standstill; there is a serious large-scale attack on the civil sector in Georgia, which performs a very important function on the path of European integration. They also emphasize the problem of de-oligarchization, saying  the de-oligarchization bill that was sent to the Venice Commission is for repression and promotes stigmatization in relation to specific people and can be used against them”, she said. 

 

Dekanoidze left the United National Movement opposition party last month.