Monitoring Committee Approves Draft Resolution on Georgia

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) approved a draft resolution on honoring obligations and commitments by Georgia submitted by CoE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia Matyas Eorsi and Evgeni Kirilov at a session on December 15, which says that Georgia?s progress over the last year can be regarded as ?generally encouraging? but this is still only a first step towards fully meeting its Council of Europe obligations and commitments.

?Two years after the Rose Revolution, it is now time for the new authorities to deliver on their promises,? the draft resolution says.

It notes that some specific commitments have been fulfilled and that in general, large-scale and long-term reforms have been set on the right track.

?The authorities are continuing to demonstrate a clear resolve to build a stable and modern European democracy and to better integrate the country into European and Euro-Atlantic structures. However, most reforms are still at the very beginning and major challenges still lie ahead,” the draft resolution reads.

With regard to the Council of Europe legal instruments that Georgia had to sign or ratify before September 2005, the draft resolution stressed that the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Cooperation between Territorial Communities or Authorities was signed, but has not yet been ratified. ?Regretfully, the procedure for signing and ratifying the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages has only just started,? the draft resolution reads.

The draft resolution praised Georgia for the first tangible results in the fight against corruption and the reform of the police.

It also speaks about the opposition, describing it as still weak, which is unable to come up with valid programme alternatives.

According to the draft resolution, media are financially weak and still lack the democratic culture which would allow them to credibly perform their role of democratic watchdog.

?The Assembly is aware that full normalization of the situation in Georgia is impossible without reaching a peaceful and democratic settlement of the conflicts in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It commends the [Georgian] President’s efforts to push forward his peace initiative, but at the same time is extremely worried that no real progress has been achieved on the ground and in the ongoing negotiations,? the draft resolution says.

It calls on all interested parties in the conflict, including Russia, to demonstrate their commitment to a peaceful and democratic solution with full respect of the territorial integrity of Georgia.