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Prime Minister at PACE session: "Dignity lies at the heart of our identity”

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili delivered a speech at a PACE session this afternoon. Photo by the Prime Minister’s webpage.
Agenda.ge, 21 Apr 2016 - 16:43, Tbilisi,Georgia

Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili has delivered a comprehensive speech at this afternoon’s session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

His 20-minute speech focused on the reforms carried out in Georgia, the upcoming Parliamentary Elections, foreign relations, human rights and the rights and role of the media.

Kvirikashvili began his speech by stressing Georgia was an inseparable part of Europe and the country had come a long way since it was accepted into the Council of Europe (CoE) in 1999.

This year Georgia will celebrate its 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union, and in this time Georgia has made vast progress towards Europe.

We have much to be proud of even if there is still much left to do,” Kvirikashvili said.

Reforms

Reforming Georgia’s justice system was one of the country’s main focuses of late. Kvirikashvili said the judiciary reform was a major challenge that faced the current Government when the Georgian Dream coalition came into power in 2012, but it was vital to developing democracy in Georgia.

He said the Government had worked with leading international organisations to depoliticise the police and provide a fair justice system. In this context he highlighted the Georgia-CoE 2016-2019 Action Plan, which was tailored to promote penitentiary and judicial reforms.

The Prime Minister also said:

  • The independence of the judges and prosecution has been armoured with life tenure and peer-to-peer regulation and oversight;
  • The transparency of the judicial process has been reinforced to create a level playing field between prosecution and the defence, and we have consolidated best European and US practices for the safety and impartiality of jury trials;
  • We have halved the prison population. We are treating imprisonment as a measure of last resort and we have put in place guarantees for juvenile offenders.

PACE lawmakers could ask questions to Georgia's Prime Minister. Photo by the Prime Minister's webpage. 

Human Rights

Prime Minister Kvirikashvili said the Georgian Dream coalition Government had introduced a national healthcare program and doubled the welfare services available to the population. Authorities had also transformed the Ministry of Internal Affairs into a community-oriented body.

The PM said the current Government:

  • Outlawed discrimination on the basis of skin colour, national identity, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation;
  • Had created a state in which national minorities enjoy a right to their culture, religion, language, security and opportunity;
  • Was building a society where women were not only protected, but thrived.
We have signed the Istanbul Convention. We have a national Action Plan for Security Council Resolution 1325.You cannot outlaw intolerance but you can make it unacceptable,” said Georgia’s Prime Minister.

Now the Government had a strong focus on a long-lasting agenda to better protect human rights. Speaking further about this, the PM introduced the Government’s four-point reform plan.

The four-point reform plan involved:

  • Economic Development reforms, which included further lightening tax obligations;
  • Education System Reform targeted at maximising quality of teaching in secondary schools and higher education oriented on bridging the wide gap between supply and demand for professions;
  • Infrastructure Service Development to build east-west and south-north corridors; and
  • Open Governance that ensured involvement of the private sector in legislative processes and improved, modernised public service provisions.

Kvirikashvili said as a free, democratic and open country, Georgia had a strong role to play as a regional and global player.

We have identified trade liberalisation and integration into the world’s leading markets as a top foreign policy priority,” Kvirikashvili said.

Elections

Looking ahead the Government would do its best to ensure the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in October are held in a transparent and fair environment.

Kvirikashvili stressed international organisations had already been invited to observe the election process.

Foreign relations

Georgia’s relations with the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) "have been an exemplary success” and he looked forward to enhancing these bilateral relations in the future.

In this regard Kvirikashvili mentioned Georgia’s signing of an Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU, as well as the near possibility Georgia will soon be offered a visa-free regime to travel in the Schengen Zone.

Kvirikashvili said Georgia had high expectations over Georgia-EU visa liberalisation and NATO Warsaw Summit. Photo by the Prime Minister's webpage . 

In terms of NATO, the Georgian official spoke about Georgia’s relations with the international military alliance and noted the success of the developing partnership. He spoke about the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package of support which involved opening a Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC) in Tbilisi, and Georgia’s strong participation in international peacekeeping missions.

We hope the Warsaw Summit in July will see Georgia recognised as a reliable and capable security partner and that we will make a clear-cut and evident step forward in the direction of membership,” Kvirikashvili said.

Meanwhile normalising Georgia’s relations with Russia had not been as successful despite Georgia’s "very pragmatic policy”.

But our efforts to normalise relations with Moscow are insufficient without due respect to our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Kvirikashvili, noting no compromise would be made regarding Georgia’s two occupied territories Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

He said people living in these two breakaway regions were deprived of fundamental human rights and Georgia was "highly concerned” by a plan by de facto Tskhinvali authorities to hold a referendum on joining the Russian Federation.

Kvirikashvili stressed this development could pose major threats for the region, and Georgia.

Media

The role of media in Georgia was changing for the better, said Georgia’s PM. He said since Georgian Dream took office in 2012, Georgia had created one of the most liberal digital broadcasting regimes in the world.

He stressed the European Commission, the OSCE, the World Bank, Transparency International and the Eastern Partnership Civic Forum agree on one thing – to express yourself in Georgia is safe and there is media pluralism.

The PM highlighted the recent survey by Reporters without Borders, which saw Georgia improve its place internationally on the Index by 36 points compared to 2012.


Georgia’s European Future

Georgia’s Prime Minister concluded his speech at PACE by asking Georgia’s friends and foes to "please place yourself on the right side of history”.

Make decisions for which you can be proud of. By all means be critical, but also be helpful.”

"We are Europeans. That is not a geographic statement but that of identity: political, cultural and historical. Thus, Georgian citizens do deserve to be European.”