Polarization sometimes encouraged, funded by European funds – parliament speaker

Unfortunately, polarization is sometimes encouraged and funded, among others, by European funds,Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Wednesday, claiming NGOs affiliated with the European Georgia and Droa opposition parties, as well as the Shame movement, had been obtaining their funding from European funds. 

He said the government believed the European Union “itself should think about how sincere and honest it is towards Georgia, when, on the one hand, it asks us to depolarize the political environment and on the other hand, It does not prevent polarization to be directly financed by the money of EU citizens”.  Papuashvili also claimed the bloc’s decision last year not to grant Georgia its membership candidate status was “unfair” and “politically grounded”, and said the forthcoming decision on Georgia’s candidacy would also be dependent on the “political context by the end of this year”.  

“Every day that Georgia does not have the status of a candidate is an injustice to Georgia”, Papuashvili said. 

In comments on sanctions on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, Papuashvili reiterated Tbilisi had joined “all international sanctions on Russia”, but added imposing individual sanctions on the Kremlin would create threats to the country’s security and its economy.