Parliament Speaker, Parliamentary opposition groups discuss Gov’t plan for EU conditions implementation

Representatives of Georgian Parliamentary opposition groups on Thursday met Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili to discuss the Government’s plan for implementing the 12-point conditions established by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status.

The meeting also involved a review of the issue of reducing political polarisation in the country, one of the conditions in the EU outline.

Anri Okhanashvili, the Chair of the Parliament’s Legal Issues Committee, told local media the ruling Georgian Dream party had suggested monitoring the “attitudes, rhetoric and approaches” of all political parties and politicians, and explained the proposal was about “creating a standard” for reducing “the campaign of aggression” on the domestic political field, as opposed to it amounting to “censorship or sanctioning”.

Okhanashvili also said the monitoring group would make results of the monitoring public, which would “allow politicians to think about their statements”, adding the “constant rhetorical aggression” needed to be replaced with “constructive criticism” for cooperation between parties to move forward.

Levan Ioseliani, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and a member of the Citizens opposition party, also addressed the creation of the monitoring group by saying the body would “not be enough” to reduce the polarisation. He added a “real debate” between the Government and opposition representatives would be the “ultimate help” for the objective, and suggested the pro-Government and opposition-minded media channels “open the space” and invite their opponents for the goal.

Khatuna Samnidze, an opposition MP and the Chair of the Republican Party, stressed the ruling party was “not ready to take steps” toward depolarisation “at this stage”, and said she had her “specific agenda”. She expressed her party’s readiness to continue efforts to make the implementation process [of the EU conditions] “inclusive”.

The ruling Georgian Dream party on Friday presented its strategy for fulfilling the EU conditions. The strategy involves a working group - featuring representatives of all Parliamentary parties and the civil sector - that will provide a “comprehensive assessment” of the implementation of the legislative body’s regulations in the field of Parliamentary supervision, and prepare a legislative initiative to correct identified shortcomings.