United National Movement may join ruling party working format for EU candidacy - opposition MP
Opposition MP Levan Bezhashvili said on Thursday visiting MEPs had encouraged the United National Movement opposition party to cooperate with the ruling party for Georgia’s EU membership.
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The United National Movement party, the largest opposition group in the state legislature, may join the parliamentary format proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party for addressing the 12-point conditions set by the European Commission in June for Georgia to obtain European Union membership candidate status by the end of this year, UNM MP Levan Bezhashvili said on Thursday.
Speaking to Palitra News, Bezhashvili suggested UNM was “discussing the possibility”, after a delegation of members of the European Parliament, who visited Georgia this week, urged the party to join the process.
Bezhashvili cited the six-member delegation as saying the opposition’s engagement in the format “would prevent the ruling party from blocking Georgia’s EU integration process”.
Responding to the party’s plans, ruling party MP Rati Ionatamishvili said on Friday that Bezhashvili had “made an individual attempt earlier” to join the process before being forced to abandon the attempt by colleagues in the party.
The ruling party-initiated working format is open for everyone to speak out with their views and positions”, Ionatamishvili said.
Ruling party MP Rati Ionatamishvili has encouraged the opposition once again to cooperate for Georgia's EU candidacy. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office.
In remarks to Bezhashvili’s comments, Girchi opposition party MP Iago Khvichia said the UNM’s potential decision to join the format would be “adequate”, as the move “would not allow the ruling party to call the opposition ‘destructive’ and shift the blame onto them” if Georgia failed to fulfill the EU membership conditions.
The ruling party has called on the opposition to cooperate following the June decision of the European Council to grant Georgia European perspective and a six-month term to address several issues to receive membership candidacy status.
Georgian Dream representatives have said that fulfilling the conditions, which cover moves for depolarising the domestic political environment, “deoligarchisation”, judiciary reforms and other issues, require the opposition's involvement.
An alternative working format proposed by three Parliamentary opposition parties for work on Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status “will not benefit” the country’s European prospects, and the opposition should work together with the ruling party for the objective, Nika Simonishvili, the head of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association non-governmental organisation, said on Monday.
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said the policy of the opposition United National Movement party was to “somehow harm” the country, highlighting the party’s refusal to participate in fulfilling the 12-point conditions established by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status later this year.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Sunday said a part of the domestic opposition had “boycotted Europe” and the implementation of the conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status later this year.
Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Thursday called on the domestic opposition, non-governmental organisations and experts to get involved in the work process on fulfilling the 12-point conditions established by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status.
The ruling Georgian Dream party on Friday presented its strategy for fulfilling the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Council for granting the country the European Union membership candidate status later this year.