The Daily Beat: 12 June
The Venice Commission, a legal expertise body of the Council of Europe, published its final opinion on the draft law on “De-oligarchisation,” recommending that the draft law not be adopted. According to the final opinion, the authorities are suggested to conduct an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the existing systemic measures to fight oligarch influence in the country. The Venice Commission also recommends that the Georgian authorities adopt additional or complementary measures, including fighting against high-level corruption and establishing an effective competition policy, strengthened media pluralism, transparency of media ownership, and further enhancement of the anti-money laundering policy. Adopting the “De-oligarchisation law” was one of the 12 EU conditions necessary for obtaining the EU candidacy status late this year.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili unexpectedly explored surrogacy at a government meeting, saying that only Georgian citizens should be eligible for surrogacy rights. Prime Minister considers it unacceptable when foreigners make business proposals for Georgian women and same-sex couples take children born in Georgia out of the country. According to Irakli Garibashvili, the new surrogacy regulations are already submitted to the parliament, and he is optimistic about their adoption.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sports of Liechtenstein Dominique Hasler is on an official visit to Georgia, holding meetings with the prime minister, foreign affairs minister, and the parliament speaker. Bilateral meetings in Tbilisi focused on trade and economic relations, highlighting the country’s transit potential to strengthen interconnections in the region and beyond. The sides also agreed to boost political cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats. Dominique Hasler visited the occupation line near South Ossetia and got briefed on the dire consequences of Russian occupation. She is also scheduled to meet with President Salome Zurabishvili.
Transparency International – Georgia (TI Georgia), a local watchdog, released a study revealing that most public agencies have failed to publish simplified procurement contracts. According to the study, the government’s administration, the president’s office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Security Service are among the key agencies failing to publish procurement contracts. State Procurement Agency attributes this issue to a technical flaw of the CMR module and says that the Agency continues to take action to fully eliminate the technical flaws with plans to introduce a modified electronic system by January 1, 2025.
On June 9, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili visited Berlin, where he met with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Prime Minister’s press office reported that friendly bilateral relations and a regional security environment were at the heart of the Berlin talks. The government press release reads that PM Garibashvili briefed the Chancellor on the reforms to accomplish the 12 EU conditions necessary for advancing on the EU path. Prime Minister also thanked the German host for supporting the country’s European aspirations. According to the Federal Government’s press release, Chancellor Scholz supported Georgia’s EU ambitions but urged the Georgian prime minister to fulfill the EU terms in the remaining weeks.
Data of the Day
According to the first-quarter data released by the chief statistics office, the country received USD 496.6 million in foreign direct investments, marking a 13.7% decrease compared to the first quarter of the previous year while showing a significant 53.3% increase from the fourth quarter of 2022. The Netherlands topped the list of foreign direct investors with USD 239.6 million (48.2% of total investment), followed by Japan with USD 63.2 million (12.7%), the United States with USD 54.7 million (11.0%), Turkey with USD 47 million (9.5%) and Russia USD 28.2 million (5.7%). The top five investor countries collectively represented 87.1% of total investment.
