EU offers €3.6m to implement 8 country-specific projects

The Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) are presenting eight new projects for Georgia on strengthening human rights standards, social reintegration of prisoners, freedom of media and supporting elections.

The eight projects, which have a total budget of €3.6 million (9.4 million GEL), must be implemented in Georgia in the next two years. The Council of Europe and the EU agreed to finance the important development projects.

The projects will be implemented by the Council of Europe and carried out under the Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Eastern Partnership countries.

The projects focused on the application of the European Convention on: 

• Human Rights;
• Civic integration of national minorities;
• Support to the Georgian Bar Association;
• Improving social reintegration of prisoners;
• Countering money laundering;
• Promoting freedom, professionalism and pluralism of the media; and
• Protecting internet freedom, as well as assisting elections.

Representatives of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, EU Delegation to Georgia, Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Council of Europe Coordinator of the Programmatic Cooperation Framework presented the projects to the media today.

Meanwhile, Georgia participated in 14 region actions in addition to the above mentioned eight country-specific projects. The 14 actions covered several Eastern Partnership countries.