Ruling party: conditions of EU-mediated agreement fulfilled, including calls for judicial reforms
The ruling party stated that they are ready to discuss in detail the content of the political agreement and the state of its execution with strategic partners. Photo: Georgian Dream press office.
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The ruling Georgian Dream party says all conditions of the EU-mediated agreement ending months of political standoff in April 2021 have been fulfilled amid the US State Department’s criticism over the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court.
The agreement had called for a moratorium on the appointment of judges before the implementation of wide-scale judicial reforms.
The parliament of Georgia appointed six judges out of nine candidates to the country’s Supreme Court on July 12, with the minimal involvement of opposition parties in the voting process and despite calls for a moratorium from NGOs, the international community and the opposition.
Head of the ruling party Irakli Kobakhidze, vice-speaker of Parliament Archil Talakvadze and Ruling party MP Shalva Papuashvili stated that ‘due to the unscrupulous actions of individual officials’ the main strategic partner country is provided with distorted information on the implementation of the EU-mediated agreement.
Such actions threaten any dialogue that may take place in the future around various domestic issues,” the statement reads.
The authors of the announcement said that the law passed by parlimanet thoroughly reflects all the key recommendations of the Venice Commission.
All the conditions of the political agreement were strictly fulfilled: the government refrained from appointing judges of the Supreme Court in accordance with the old rules, High Council of Justice paused interview process in line with recommendation agreed with international partners, parliament passed a law outlining all three key recommendations of the Venice Commission, the new law also allowed additional candidates to participate in the application and selection process,” said the announcement.
The statement also underlines that the parliamentary majority has completed the process and adopted amendments to the Organic Law on Common Courts in three readings, which was proceeded in accordance with the EU-mediated agreement.
The Georgian Dream has carefully taken into account the Venice Commission's 2019 recommendation, based on to which one-half of the judges of the Supreme Court had to be elected by the ninth and the other half by the tenth convocation parliament. Prior to that, the so-called first, second, third and fourth wave of reforms were implemented, which have received positive reviews from international partners,” stated in the announcement.
The ruling party stated that they are ready to discuss in detail the content of the political agreement and the state of its execution with strategic partners.
The US State Department has expressed its concerns over the appointment of judges earlier today and called on the Georgian government to suspend the process until the implementation of ‘comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive judicial reform.’
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan also underlined the importance of the State Department’s message and once again called for the suspension of the process.