Not receiving EU candidacy status, means bloc losing its monitoring leverage – opposition member

If Georgia fails to receive the European Union membership candidate status [next year], it will mean that the bloc loses its monitoring leverage on Georgia, which will make the situation for the country even worse, Mamuka Gamkrelidze, a Secretary General of European Democrats opposition party told Front News on Tuesday. 

Gamkrelidze suggested that the EU expected that a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition would be achieved, leading to the implementation of a number of legal amendments for the country to meet the 12-point conditions set by the EU for candidacy. 

“The ruling party has already sent draft laws related to the change of the electoral system and de-oligarchisation to the Council of Europe Venice Commission, which is more related to the fulfillment of their wishes than to meeting the conditions”, said the opposition representative. 

He said that MEPs “clearly see” that the activities of the ruling party were “one-sided”. 

“They are perfectly aware of the anti-Western statements of the Georgian Dream and their affiliated  politicians, as well as the reasons behind the rhetoric. The position of our party is that it is better for the country to receive the candidate status, as the bloc will have a monitoring leverage in this case, which will benefit the country’s move towards Europe”, Gamkrelidze stated. 

He said that the ruling party’s statements, that the opposition was against the country’s candidate status, was not true, as the opposition members were trying to assure the bloc to grant the status to Georgia.