Norway to Follow EU in Suspending Visa Free Regime for Georgia’s Diplomatic Passport Holders
As the European Union suspended visa-free travel to the Schengen area for Georgian travelers with diplomatic and official passports, “Norway will consider taking parallel steps,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in its February 3 statement.
The statement recalls the October 26 elections that were marred by “widespread irregularities,” then mentions the November 28 decision by the Georgian Dream government to abandon EU accession efforts, followed by non-stop protests. It highlights the authorities’ “brutal violence” against demonstrators, including at the recent February 2 protest at the entrance to Tbilisi.
Norway has so far reacted to the “worrying developments” in Georgia with several steps, including not initiating any new cooperation projects with the involvement of Georgian authorities, reducing financial support for cooperation with the Georgian authorities through multilateral channels, and instead increasing support to civil society, suspending bilateral cooperation in the defense sector, and reducing contacts at the political level.
In addition, Norway was one of the countries that invoked the OSCE Vienna Mechanism with regard to Georgia, giving the authorities a deadline to answer certain questions related to Georgia’s adherence to the principles and values to which Georgia has committed itself as an OSCE participating State.
The EU suspended visa-free regime for Georgian diplomatic and service passport holders on January 27. This “will be followed up by parallel steps by Norway,” the statement says.
Although the authorities can no longer enter the Schengen area without a visa with diplomatic passports, they can do so with ordinary passports, which they also possess. There have been calls for the EU not to leave this loophole to the authorities and to draw up a list of individuals who should be individually banned from entering the EU without a visa, even with ordinary passports.
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