Pavel Gerchinsky, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, has announced the suspension of Georgia’s accession to the EU.
The diplomat told journalists at a two-day international conference in Tbilisi, “Ekho Kavkaza” and SOVA reported, Babel informs.
The reason for the suspension of integration is the law on “foreign agents” adopted by the Georgian parliament, which duplicates the Russian law. It forces media outlets and organizations with a share of foreign capital to report, and gives the Ministry of Justice the right to conduct inspections with subsequent fines.
The anti-Western and anti-European rhetoric of the Georgian authorities also contributed to the suspension of integration. According to Gerchinsky, such rhetoric is absolutely incompatible with the declared goal of joining the European Union.
For EU leaders, the intentions of the current Georgian government are unclear today, the ambassador said.
Pavel Gerchinsky also announced that the EU has frozen €30 million allocated to support the Georgian Defense Forces.
Regarding security and defense cooperation, unfortunately, we have to inform you that the [EU] leaders have also decided to freeze the money allocated to support the Georgian Defense Forces under the European Peace Facility (EPF) […]. And this is only the first step, there will be other steps. Our direct assistance to the Georgian government will be reduced, and we will try to shift this direct assistance to the government to civil society and the media. This was announced after a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg, – SOVA quoted Gerchinsky as saying.
Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In December 2023, Georgia was granted candidate status and had to launch a series of reforms.
