PM vows gov’t will explain president why it refused to take EU loan
PM Irakli Garibashvili reiterated that the government refused to take the EU loan and not the financial aid ‘which is different.’
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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.’
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'.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated it is unclear for her and the public why the Georgian Dream government has refused to take the second tranche of the EU’s 150 million euro loan which should have been addressed to decrease 'the social and human damage that COVID has done to our population'.
The EU delegation to Georgia has responded to the Georgian government’s recent refusal to take the second tranche of the EU’s 150 million euro loan, stating that they ‘respect’ the decision, but noting that the country has been unable to completely fulfil preconditions that would have been needed to receive the second instalment.
The United National Movement (UNM) and the European Georgia opposition party leaders say that the Georgian government has refused to take the second part of the EU’s €75 million euro loan because the EU was likely to impose sanctions against Georgia for the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s withdrawal from the April 2021 EU-mediated agreement.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced that the government has decided not to take the second tranche of an EU loan as 'we are trying to reduce foreign debt'. In 2020 the EU disbursed a €60 million grant as part of its €75 million Covid-19 Resilience Contract for Georgia to assist in the implementation of the government’s Anti-Crisis Economic Plan.