Venice Commission recommends Georgian authorities to drop deoligarchisation bill

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on Monday published its opinion on the controversial deoligarchisation bill proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party last year, and recommended the country’s authorities to drop it. 

 

Responding to the request of the Georgian parliament speaker in April 2022 to unveil its recommendations on the specific bill, the Commission said in a bid to combat  oligarchic influence in the country, Tbilisi needed to carry out an “in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the existing systemic measures” of their shortcomings in terms of structure, powers and coordination. 

 

It also called for additional or complementary legislation or measures that would include  effective competition policy, strengthening the fight against high-level corruption and the prevention of corruption,  upholding the transparency of and accountability in public procurement, strengthening media pluralism and transparency of media ownership and further enhancing the anti-money laundering policy. 

 

Other recommendations included the reinforcement  of rules on the financing of political parties and election campaigns, and existing control mechanisms, amending tax legislation, strengthening the independence and effectiveness of the key regulatory and controlling authorities; assessing  the way various institutions could work better together in preventing and eliminating the influence of “oligarchs” over political, economic and public life. 

 

The Commission claimed most countries had devised and put in place a set of interconnected legislative, inter-institutional, administrative, economic and other measures, in order to prevent the disruptive effects on democracy, the rule of law and human rights brought on by the concentration of such influence in the hands of a few, rather than pursuing a multi-sectoral, “systemic” approach. 

 

“Georgia has chosen to tackle the destructive influence of oligarchisation through a different ‘personal approach’, by preparing a draft law on de-oligarchisation”, it said, adding the “personal approach”, as specified by revised draft law seek to identify persons as “oligarchs” through specific criteria, such as wealth, media ownership and subjected them to a series of limitations. 

 

The ruling party claimed the bill was in line with relevant Ukrainian legislation and was expecting positive feedback, saying the adoption of the law would ease Georgia’s European integration ahead of the European Union’s forthcoming decision whether to grant Georgia its membership candidate status by the end of this year.