Georgia is primed initial EP at Villnius summit, report findings

By Tamar Khurtsia

As Georgia is proud to be one of the front-runners among Eastern Partnership countries, there is an increasing impression that more must be done to consolidate and institutionalize its own democracy.

These are the findings of a report monitoring the Implementation of the Eastern Partnership Roadmap in Georgia five weeks before the November 28-29 Vilnius Summit. Funded by Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF), the report reviews the actions taken towards the fulfillment of the countrys European aspiration and the existing challenges. The EP Road Map was adopted in May, 2012.

Assessing fields like election environment, media independence, integrated border management, the common foreign and security policy, cyber security, local self-government, anti-corruption and judicial reforms, the Executive director of OSGF Keti Khutsishvili said that Georgia achieved certain progress with regard to most of the EaP benchmarks.

"Georgia is ready to put its initial to the agreement during the Vilnius summit but still needs to implement many important reforms in order to sign the associate agreement with EU by the end of next year. This will mark that Georgia would conduct strong political and economic ties with EU, said Khustishvili in her welcoming speech at the presentation of the report in Tbilisi at Courtyard Marriot Hotel.

We have no right to sidestep the way that leads us to the EU integration; otherwise the future of Georgia will be very difficult. The next step of the reforms must be in the regional and local governance sector, as well as further develop the media and election laws, Khutsishvili added.

Minister Aleksi Petriashvili from the State Ministry of Georgia on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration believes that after the initiate, Georgia would meet the conditions set by EU for signing the association agreement in a year.

Armenias blocked Vilnius Summit

The presentation of the report in Tbilisi was also attended by the civil society members of Armenia. They expressed their disappointment to the recent decision of Armenias President Serzh Sargsyans to join the Moscow-led Customs Union and take part in the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union. Armenias decision blocked the way for the country to initial an association and free trade agreement with EU.

According to Executive Director of Open Society Armenia Foundation Larisa Minasian, the civil society expressed concerns about the governments decision.

"The presidents one phrase on September 3 in Moscow changed the quality of democracys credibility for Armenia in the EU. The damage the country received after the announcement will even influence negatively on the reforms which was supported by the civil society. We have to decide the challenges and threats we will face in the nearest future, Minasian said.

Georgia expects to initial (step before the official signature) the Association Agreement at the EU Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in late November, 2013. The Eastern Partnership also involves Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova.

Main findings and recommendation

The main highlights found by independent monitors of the report are that there are some problems with financial independence of the judiciary. The remuneration of judges was found to be problematic. On this issue, the report recommends to introduce a special procedure regarding the negotiation of the juridical budget.

In regards to media freedom, as opposed to the year 2012, the media environment was a little bit less polarized in 2013. However, the impartiality of media is a still problem in the country. "The new government appears to be more responsive to requests for public information and journalists are easier to get in touch with, reads the report.

In referring to fight against corruption, the report concluded that the existing legal provisions are not always applied effectively in practice, either because of loopholes in the law or because of the lack of proper implementation and monitoring mechanism.

After the parliamentary elections in 2012, the new government declared ambitious plans to reform local and regional governance. Consequently, the report authors believe that there are reasons to be optimistic that significant reforms will be implemented in the following years to achieve the higher degree of decentralization and effectiveness of local and regional authorities.