Former ruling party MPs say “radical opposition” sees European Council’s conditions for Georgia’s EU membership as part of its “revolutionary plan”

The 12 conditions outlined by the European Council for granting Georgia the European Union membership candidate status later this year are seen as part of the “revolutionary plan” of the “radical opposition” in the country, three MPs who left the ruling party last week to publicise “behind-the-scenes developments” of the domestic political field said in a statement on Monday.

In their latest statement, Sozar Subari, Mikheil Kavelashvili and Dimitri Khundadze said the United National Movement opposition party and their partners had plans to “consistently try to use each point of the plan to prepare a revolutionary scenario by the end of December”.

They also claimed “no-one will grant Georgia the [European Union membership] candidate status at the end of the year”, but said the Government “must show” that European integration is a “solid priority” for it and “display efforts” to achieve the goal.

The MPs - who left the ruling party saying they had decided on an alternate public relations plan to inform the public on the opposition’s plans and activities - said they viewed the prospect of meeting the conditions of the European Council “with scepticism”, but added they still believed the Government should “do everything possible” to implement its strategy - presented on Friday - for meeting the conditions.