Speaker Papuashvili: ‘blackmail, pressure against Georgia won’t work’

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday criticised what he called the European Union’s “biased and unjust” attitude toward Georgia, saying Brussels was moving away from its founding democratic values.

Speaking at a briefing, Papuashvili said the European Commission’s enlargement report on Georgia reflected “political bias and hostility” rather than the country’s real progress. He accused EU institutions of “arrogance and disrespect” toward states that act independently.

Papuashvili also said it was “regrettable” that Brussels had not made a clear statement on the attempted “violent storming” of the presidential palace by “radical groups” in early October, claiming some links between these groups and “certain EU representatives”.

He asserted that the report contained “false accusations” about Georgia spreading Russian disinformation and misrepresented the Government’s transparency law. He said the EU ignored issues such as alleged interference by its diplomats and the funding of opposition-linked NGOs and media.

“Blackmail and pressure against Georgia will not work. We will not give up. Georgia will continue its path toward the European Union - not for the European Union that today’s Brussels bureaucracy is emptying of its European essence and leaving as merely a union, but for the European Union whose goal is to restore true European values”, Papuashvili said.