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PM Accuses UNM of Lobbying Against EU Visa Free for Georgia

PM Irakli Garibashvili accused the opposition UNM party of lobbying in EU institutions against granting Georgia a visa free travel regime to the Schengen area while the Georgian Dream ruling coalition is in government.

UNM parliamentary minority leader, MP Davit Bakradze, responded to the allegation saying it is part of the government’s blame-shifting tactics.

Speaking at a government session on November 19, the PM said that there is a “high probability” that the European Commission’s report on how Georgia is implementing its visa liberalization action plan expected in mid-December will be “positive”.

“Of course it will then require consent of all 28 member states, which will take additional time, but at this stage I can say that stance is optimistic in the EU,” said the PM, who visited Brussels earlier this week.

He thanked the ministries and state agencies for their “hard work” in carrying out reforms envisaged by the visa liberalization action plan.

“It demonstrates the serious work done by our government,” Garibashvili said. “Today we can declare proudly that all the commitments undertaken by the Georgian government [under the visa liberalization action plan] have been fulfilled and this is acknowledged by the EU unanimously.”

“[United] National Movement’s Davit Bakradze and [MP] Giorgi Kandelaki were the only ones in Brussels demanding not to grant visa free regime to Georgia… saying that granting a visa free regime to Georgia in the condition of current government is not desirable,” PM Garibashvili said.

“What else but enmity against our people and the country can we call it?” he added.

Responding to the PM’s remarks, UNM parliamentary minority leader MP Davit Bakradze said: “I can say unequivocally that we support decision on visa liberalisation to be taken promptly as it belongs to the Georgian people and not to Garibashvili’s government.”

“But we should understand that the only real threat posed today to visa liberalization is government’s actions in the country and government’s attempt to seize Rustavi 2 TV. Those attempts to shift [blame for] the problem on the opposition is a tragicomedy,” MP Bakradze said.

PM Garibashvili also said in his remarks at the government session that visa liberalisation process with the EU started after the GD coalition came into government. “For some reasons the previous government was not thinking about it,” Garibashvili said.

Georgia and the EU launched the visa liberalisation talks in June, 2012, when the UNM was in government, and visa liberalisation action plan (VLAP) was presented to Georgia in late February, 2013, when the GD was in government.

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