{"id":396306,"date":"2024-10-09T16:25:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/10\/09\/regresso-georgia-democrazia-parlamento-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-10-14T19:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:20:44","slug":"georgias-democratic-regress-worries-eu-parliament-ahead-of-parliamentary-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/10\/09\/georgias-democratic-regress-worries-eu-parliament-ahead-of-parliamentary-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia&#8217;s &#8220;democratic regress&#8221; worries EU Parliament ahead of parliamentary elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\"><em>From the correspondent in Strasbourg<\/em>&#8211; With the <strong>Parliamentary elections on October 26 just around the corner<\/strong>, and a strongly pro-Russian and anti-liberal government, <strong>democracy in Georgia is at risk<\/strong>. The European Parliament has <strong>adopted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/doceo\/document\/TA-10-2024-0017_EN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resolution<\/a> in response to Georgian estrangement from the European Union and its values<\/strong>, with the prospect of membership looking increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">The EU had promised that it would not let the Georgian government&#8217;s actions slide, and the resolution puts it in black and white that <strong>Georgia must fulfil the commitments it has made since it submitted its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ge\/index.php?lang_id=ENG&amp;sec_id=574&amp;info_id=81401\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">application for EU entry<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-map\" data-src=\"visualisation\/19734096\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/19734096\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"map visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">There is talk of &#8220;<strong>democratic regression<\/strong>&#8221; and a &#8220;<strong>climate of hatred and intimidation<\/strong>&#8221; for Georgia, which has adopted <strong>laws<\/strong> that are &#8220;<strong>incompatible with the democratic values and principles of the EU<\/strong>&#8221; and obviously hold back (if not block) the Georgian accession process. &#8220;<strong>Deep concern for\u00a0Russia&#8217;s increased influence in Georgia<\/strong>&#8221; for the EU Parliament, which is also confirmed by the Georgian Dream party&#8217;s use of war imagery in Ukraine to manipulate public opinion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">A\u00a0<strong>strong condemnation<\/strong> regarding the <strong>criminalization of opposition forces comes from\u00a0oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili<\/strong> and prominent figures in government.\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Also, on the subject of countering political opponents, MEPs are pushing\u00a0<strong>the country&#8217;s Bureau of Investigation to investigate the\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/02\/in-georgia-police-began-using-violence-against-peaceful-pro-eu-protesters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>brutal repressions<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0of pro-EU demonstrations<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">Candidate country status was granted to Georgia in the belief that the Commission&#8217;s recommendations to reach European standards would be followed. &#8220;<strong>The recently adopted legislation is clearly at odds with this ambition and has effectively suspended Georgia&#8217;s integration into the EU<\/strong>,&#8221; the recommendation reads. The call to the EU and member states is to <strong>proceed against those who undermine democracy in the country, including with personal sanctions<\/strong> (as the US has already done toward Georgian Dream members).<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\"><strong>Elections<\/strong> are a hot topic for MEPs, and there is a strong demand that the <strong>highest international standards for democratic, fair and free elections<\/strong> be <strong>ensured<\/strong>\u00a0and, above all, <strong> the will and free choice of the Georgian people<\/strong>, which the ruling party, Georgian Dream, definitely holds in low regard, to be respected.<\/p>\n<h4 id='the-political-situation-in-georgia'  id=\"boomdevs_1\">The political situation in Georgia<\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">The Georgian political situation is complex, given the division between a pro-EU population and a government that looks to Putin&#8217;s Russia.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">In May this year <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/14\/eu-and-georgia-government-clash-over-pro-russian-law-passed-despite-oceanic-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a law\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/14\/eu-and-georgia-government-clash-over-pro-russian-law-passed-despite-oceanic-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was enacted<\/a> <strong>on &#8220;transparency of foreign influence,&#8221;<\/strong> reminiscent, not too vaguely, of Russia&#8217;s one. The law requires organizations that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as an &#8220;organization that pursues the interests of a foreign power.&#8221; Here is the first obvious rift with the EU on the path to membership.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">The&#8221;<strong>stop to the accession process<\/strong>&#8221; resulted for Georgia in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/09\/eu-suspension-georgia-government-funds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">freezing of the European Peace Fund<\/a><\/strong> from the EU, effectively blocking \u20ac30 million for the current year. The <strong>EU Ambassador to Georgia<\/strong>, <strong>Pawe\u0142 Herczy\u0144ski<\/strong>, stated that &#8220;other <strong>measures<\/strong> are being considered if the situation deteriorates further.&#8221; Today&#8217;s resolution <strong>confirms the freeze on funding<\/strong> &#8220;until the undemocratic laws are repealed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">In September, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/09\/04\/with-new-family-law-georgia-moves-further-away-from-europe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approval of an additional measure<\/a> related to &#8220;family values and the protection of children&#8221;<\/strong> gave a further <strong>blow<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>to pro-European Georgia<\/strong>. The law &#8220;undermines the fundamental rights of the Georgian people,&#8221; per the European External Action Service (EEAS). The <strong>recognition and protection of the family only as a union between a man<\/strong> (&#8220;biologically male&#8221;) <strong>and a woman<\/strong> (&#8220;biologically female&#8221;) has a strong impact on Georgian civil society, threatening the rights of the Lgbtq+ community.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">The European Parliament decided to send a strong signal, hoping that Oct. 26 would get Georgia and its increasingly claudicant democracy back on track. For one thing, the law on &#8220;transparency of foreign influences&#8221; has &#8220;effectively removed the obligation to have national observers,&#8221; whose presence for the EU Parliament could have fostered transparency.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\"><strong>There is no unity in the decision<\/strong>, since the small far-right <strong>group ESN<\/strong>, Europe of Sovereign Nations, had proposed an <strong>opposite amendment to the adopted text<\/strong>. Among the <strong>495 in favour were the EPP almost en bloc and S&amp;D<\/strong>, <strong>Patriots for Europe split between for and against<\/strong> (and a few abstentions), and ESN remained in opposition. As we await the elections, Europe speaks clearly: Georgia must completely reverse course, shifting its favour from Russia to Europe, or membership will become another &#8220;Georgian dream.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;EU accession at risk, anti-European laws and anti-democratic drift&#8221; focus of European Parliament resolution, calling for personal sanctions against members of Georgian government<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7877,"featured_media":351862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25816,28151,27451,28346,29045,25803],"class_list":["post-396306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-europarliament-en","tag-georgia-and","tag-parliament-ue-en","tag-resolution-en","tag-russia-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396306"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396505,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396306\/revisions\/396505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}