Georgia is “returning to the past” through the new foreign agents law, the president of the former Soviet state has said, as EU ministers urge the government to “take a way out”.
Speaking at a press conference with the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Iceland, Salome Zurabishvili said the governing Georgian Dream party had diverted the country down a “very serious” road.
After 30 days of protests by hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, MPs voted on Tuesday by 84 to 30 to back the adoption of a “foreign influence” law.
Under the legislation, media or civil society groups in Georgia that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad will have to register as “organisations serving the interests of a foreign power”.
Washington’s assistant secretary of state Jim O’Brien had spoken on Tuesday of the vote being a potential turning point, with the legislation holding the potential to be a tool to repress dissenting voices.
He had warned Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, that his government would lose hundreds of millions in military and economic aid if it became an “adversary and not a partner”.
Zurabishvili said the policy of Georgian governments since the non-violent Rose revolution against Soviet-style rule had been to take a “middle road” between the west and Russia.
She said the government’s latest actions had been a shift and a “return to the former past” but insisted that the protests on to the streets of Tbilisi proved that Georgians “will never return to Russian pressure”.
The European Commission has said that the legislation is an obstacle to Georgia’s accession to the EU.
Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said the Georgian prime minister should accept a presidential veto of the law, adding that mere amendments would not suffice.
He said: “It is still not too late. We have heard from the madame president that she plans to veto and this will offer him a way out, an opportunity for the government to withdraw this unfortunate legislative initiative altogether.”
He added: “There should be no illusions that prospective amendments to this law may make [it] ‘democracy- or EU-proof’. This law is not compatible with European choice. You cannot fix something that is fundamentally broken.”
Kobakhidze had suggested on Tuesday that amendments could be on the cards once he had received further legal advice on the new law, including from the Venice commission, an advisory body to the human rights organisation the Council of Europe.
Marija Pejčinović Burić, the Council of Europe’s secretary general, issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the law.
She said: “The adoption at the third reading of the draft law ‘on transparency of foreign influence’ by the parliament of Georgia, without waiting for the opinion of the Venice commission, is very disappointing and does not reflect the spirit of constructive dialogue.
“Regrettably, international partners’ concerns regarding the draft law’s incompatibility with European democratic and human rights standards were ignored, while the lack of genuine parliamentary deliberations is not in accordance with an inclusive democratic process.”
Despite the condemnation from Washington and many EU capitals, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, only made a statement on Wednesday – nearly 24 hours after the vote.
Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary blocked an initial draft that would have been in the name of all 27 member states. Hungary had the support of the Slovakian government led by the populist Robert Fico, who is seeking to introduce a similar piece of legislation on foreign influence.
In the belated statement, Borrell, and the EU’s neighborhood commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi, called for an end to the intimidation of protesters.
They write: “The EU stands with the Georgian people and their choice in favour of democracy and of Georgia’s European future. The intimidation, threats and physical assaults on civil society representatives, political leaders and journalists, as well as their families is unacceptable,” they said.
“The European Council granted Georgia the status of a candidate country on the understanding that the relevant 9 steps set out in the Commission recommendation of 8 November 2023 are taken. These steps require human rights to be protected and civil society as well as media to be able to operate freely. They also refer to the need for depolarisation and the fight against disinformation.”
Borrell and Várhelyi noted that “the EU has clearly and repeatedly stated that the spirit and content of the law are not in line with EU core norms and values.”
