PM vows gov’t will explain president why it refused to take EU loan

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has stated that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili ‘seems not to be well-informed’ about the EU loan and that is why she criticised the government yesterday for its refusal to take the second tranche of the EU’s 150 million euro loan. 

I believe that president is not sufficiently informed on the loan and we will explain her details and how such loans are managed by the government,” Garibashvili said earlier today.

Garibashvili reiterated that the government refused to receive the ‘loan and not the financial aid’ from the EU ‘as the government opponents are trying to display this.’ 

• EU ‘respects’ Georgian gov’t decision not to take EU loan, but notes Georgia may not have been eligible

He stated earlier that the 12 per cent economic growth allowed the government not to add the new loan and said that it had plans to gradually pay the country’s foreign debt. 

Zurabishvili said yesterday, in a press conference, that it was unclear for her and the public why the government refused  to take the 75 million euro loan which should have been addressed to decrease 'the social and human damage that COVID has done to our population'.