Gigiadze says EU isn’t demanding more than original visa liberalisation framework

The European Union is not demanding anything beyond what was originally set out in the initial visa liberalisation documents, according to Gigi Gigiadze, senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Center.

Gigiadze said the requirements from the EU are clearly outlined in public documents and that claims linking them to additional political demands are false.

“Georgian Dream has worsened the situation to such an extent and Georgia has moved so far backwards that we are now losing visa liberalisation, which we obtained years ago. What is the EU additionally demanding? — nothing. Everything the EU requires is already set out in a published and open document that anyone can see.

“When we adopted the action plan, it was very clearly specified that, if these conditions were met, Georgia would easily receive visa liberalisation. We fulfilled these requirements, and at that time all points were completed.

“After that, the Georgian Dream has been moving very quickly towards Russia, distancing itself from the EU and turning into a Russian-style state. This cannot be consistent with the requirements that were originally set out in that action plan,” he said.

Gigiadze added that attempts to portray the issue differently are aimed at creating doubt in society and shifting responsibility away from Georgian Dream.