Session for scheduling date for 1st reading of foreign agents bills postponed

The bureau session in the Georgian parliament scheduled later on Monday on the controversial foreign agents bill has been postponed until Tuesday amid protests. 

 

The session should have set the date for the first reading of the bills that envisage the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they receive more than  20 percent of their incomes from abroad, cited as a “Russian law” by domestic organizations and the international community. 

 

The failure of compilation of committee hearings on two bills of foreign agents proposed by former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party who still remain in the parliamentary majority, has been named behind the delay. 

 

The opposition lawmakers have called on the public to continue their protests at the parliament from early on Tuesday “not to allow the authorities to adopt any of the bills that “aim at stigmatizing the organizations funded by partner states and restrict their activities”. 

 

For its part, the ruling party, which backs the bills, describes them as “democratic”.