Parliament speaker claims US ambassador’s “inaccurate” comments on deoligarchisation bill benefited “radical opposition”

The “inaccurate” claims by the United States ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan last year that Ukraine had withdrawn its deologarchisation bill from the Venice Commission and there would be “no opinion” presented on the legislative piece, has contributed to the interests of the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition, Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Wednesday. 

 

The comments came following the Council of Europe Venice Commission’s recommendations on Georgian and Ukrainian deoligarchisation bills earlier this year, with the Commission recommending the authorities of both states to drop the legal pieces and instead carry out systemic reforms to prevent the excessive influence of oligarchs. 

 

Despite the Commission’s negative approach to both bills, Papuashvili claimed the ambassador’s “inaccurate information” in November 2022 had sparked tension over the issue, as the ruling party claimed it would wait for the Venice Commission’s opinion on the Ukrainian bill before the adoption its own, which it had copied from the Ukrainian one. 

 

Following the negative assessments by the Venice Commission on the Georgian bill, the ruling party passed it with its second reading on Tuesday anyway, claiming recommendations contradicted one of 12 conditions outlined by the European Union last year for granting Georgia its membership candidate status. 

 

However, the condition outlined by the European Commission in its recommendations urges the Georgian authorities to “implement the commitment to deoligarchisation by eliminating the excessive influence of vested interests in economic, political, and public life”, without making a mention of a specific legislative as the ruling party claims this. 

 

The GD pledged it would reject the bill, if the European Commission removed the “obligation of adopting the bill” from its candidacy conditions by December.