Parliament EU Integration Committee Chair: meeting with MEPs “has not said” deoligarchisation envisages solutions “tailored to one person”

Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s European Union Integration Committee, on Friday rejected the notion that her meeting with a delegation of the European Parliament had tied the deoligarchisation condition for Georgia’s European Union membership status to “solutions tailored to one person”.

[W]e talked about the conditions [outlined by the EU for granting Georgia the candidate status] and its content - including the deoligarchisation issue - although I can't say that I heard from any of [the MEPs] that this includes solutions tailored to one person. Such a thing was not said”, the Parliament official said.

Botchorishvili stressed the deoligarchisation condition was about a “systemic approach”. 

The delegation of MEPs departed on Friday after holding a series of meetings with almost all domestic political players and non-governmental organisations. They held discussions with Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, President Salome Zourabichvili, members of the opposition parties, Public Defender and NGOs.

The 12-point conditions set by the EU for granting the country the membership candidate status covers moves for depolarising the domestic political environment, “deoligarchisation”, judiciary reforms and other issues. 

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on July 12 said the “campaign of so-called ‘deoligarchisation’”, which he claimed was organised by “internal or external political opponents”, involved a “completely unsubstantiated accusation” against former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili and was aimed at “discrediting” the current governance system in the country.