The German Minister of Foreign Affairs proposed an official suspension of Georgia’s accession process to the EU.
The European Union must consider officially suspending Georgia’s accession process in view of the hostile attitude of the pro-Russian ruling party there towards the EU and the weakening of democracy in the country. This was announced on Thursday by the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, TASR reports based on a report from the DPA agency.
“With its anti-European turn, the Georgian Dream party deliberately stopped Georgia’s accession process with the EU,” said Baerbock. “In the EU, we should now also discuss the official suspension of Georgia’s accession process in view of the increasingly authoritarian policies of the Georgian Dream.”
The minister emphasized that the granting of candidate country status to Georgia in December 2023 was clearly linked to promises of reforms. “Instead of progress, however, we see an alarming regression,” she stated, pointing to the crackdown on peaceful pro-European demonstrators who have been taking to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities for several weeks.
Georgia’s ruling party is also seriously threatening the decades-long partnership with Germany, Baerbock added.
As a result of recent events, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs has limited cooperation with Georgia and suspended support projects in the amount of more than 200 million euros. Berlin is also discussing other measures with its EU partners, which, according to Baerbock, could range from the cancellation of visa-free travel for Georgian officials to targeted sanctions.
The pro-Western opposition questions the victory of the Georgian Dream party in the October parliamentary elections and strongly criticizes its decision to effectively stop accession talks with the Union. Georgian police repeatedly dispersed demonstrations by force, detained activists, and opposition politicians and media workers were the target of attacks, DPA recalled.
