PM: Agents’ Law will Create a Better Basis for Ensuring Georgia’s Accession to the EU

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said today at the press-conference held following the final adoption by the Parliament of the Foreign Agents’ law that the adoption of the law “will create a better basis for ensuring Georgia’s accession to the European Union.”

“Citizens of Georgia have the right to know who is financed by whom in this country, who carries the positive or negative interests of a foreign power in Georgia, – the Prime Minister said speaking at the government administration.

According to him with this law the Georgian society will be “better protected from any attempt to encroach on the sovereignty of Georgia.”

He spoke yet again of the attempts at revolutions “by radical parties, NGOs and the media” in the last four years, adding that “What this country needs is not radicalization and constant attempts to organize a revolution, but calm and stability” adding that the law adopted by the Parliament of Georgia “serves this very important purpose.”

“I would like to thank each member of the Parliament of Georgia who supported the law “On transparency of foreign influence” and thereby showed loyalty to the national interests of Georgia, its independence and sovereignty,” PM said.

“I understand the indignation of the forces that planned to take advantage of the opacity, organize a revolution in Georgia, open a second front and Ukrainize Georgia.” They are “disappointed”, he argued, “because the transparency of foreign influence will effectively ensure against such a scenario.”

He claimed that “the law “On transparency of foreign influence” will contribute to the fulfillment of the main recommendation of the European Union – depolarization,” adding that “the pacification of Georgia” will encourage the strengthening of the country’s democratic institutions and rapid economic growth.

Therefore, Kobakhidze concluded “the Law on Transparency will create a better basis for ensuring Georgia’s accession to the European Union.” He further claimed that “by 2030, Georgia will be better prepared than all candidate countries for joining the European Union, and Georgia will become a member of the European Union with dignity, independence, freedom and sovereignty.”

During Q&A session with journalists, commenting on the Venice Commission opinion regarding the law, which said the law should be dropped, PM Kobakhidze said: “We have a very low opinion of the professionalism of the Venice Commission, and that is why we have never sent a bill on our own initiative in recent years. We will not do so in the future. If there is a demand, we can submit a report, as in previous years, but we have no interest to do that on our initiative. In the Georgian government there are lawyers, doctors of law, professors who have much higher qualifications than the experts represented in the Venice Commission. Therefore, there is no interest in legal expertise as such, especially since even the qualifications of certain experts involved in the preparation of the conclusions are quite questionable.”

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