EU, US say parliament's failure to approve amendment on prosecutor general ‘yet another broken promise’
The US and the EU call on all parties to redouble their efforts to work together in parliament to implement key reforms to the judicial system.
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The United States Embassy and the European Union delegation to Georgia have denounced the parliament’s failure to approve constitutional amendments aimed to ensure ‘broad, multi-party support for an impartial prosecutor general’.
This, the US Embassy says, is ‘another missed opportunity to increase the independence, transparency and integrity of Georgia’s judiciary’.
We take note of opposition leaders’ comments that they were unable to support this important amendment to the Prosecutor General appointment process in order to retain the ruling party’s votes for the other important Constitutional amendments called for in the April 19 Agreement, which pertain to fully proportional elections, a two percent threshold, and factions”, the statement of the US embassy reads.
Georgian Dream’s refusal to support the Prosecutor General amendment contradicts the party’s July 28 reiteration of its commitment to implement the judicial reforms and adopt the Constitutional amendments laid out in the April 19 Agreement. This is yet another broken promise by the ruling party to make the much-needed judicial reforms that Georgian Dream and opposition party leaders have pledged, of their own accord, to adopt”, it also adds.
Read the full statement of the US embassy:
U.S. Embassy Statement on Parliament’s First Reading of Post-April 19 Agreement Constitutional Amendments https://t.co/yPXzvlDalQ
— U.S. Embassy Tbilisi (@usingeo) September 7, 2021
Noting that ‘the people of Georgia deserve an impartial, independent judiciary that is not used for political purposes’, the US embassy says that ‘with an impartial judicial system, the public can have confidence that election results will be upheld fairly, business disputes will be resolved without favoritism, and political opponents will not be targeted unjustly for prosecution’.
Those qualified professionals in the Prosecutor’s Office, and the court system more broadly, should be allowed to uphold the law without political pressure. The Constitutional amendment reforming the appointment process for the Prosecutor General would have been an important step toward that goal”, the statement further reads.
Ambassador Carl Hartzell has also noted that by withdrawing the amendment, the EU ‘regrets that yet another commitment to reform the judiciary was not upheld today’.
This amendment was due to address the way in which the Prosecutor General of Georgia is appointed, with the ambition to increase the required majority to a qualified majority, in order to ensure the broadest, cross-party support for appointments and to reduce the risk that one party can, alone, appoint a Prosecutor General in the future”, Hartzell said.
Carl Hartzell has also tweeted:
My remarks following the Parliament’s withdrawal today from the constitutional amendment on an improved appointment procedure for the Prosecutor General
— Carl Hartzell (@CarlHartzellEU) September 7, 2021
➡️ https://t.co/1gZHVtKMuT pic.twitter.com/0Dc1B8agiq
Ambassador Hartzell has further stated that 'while the European Union remains fully committed to support Georgia’s reforms in line with the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, the EU’s assistance to Georgia remains conditional on progress on key reforms'.
The US and the EU call on all parties to redouble their efforts to work together in parliament to implement key reforms to the judicial system.