Ruling party MP slams opposition’s alternative move for EU membership candidacy work

Nikoloz Samkharadze, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday criticised the move of three Parliamentary opposition parties to boycott a working group initiated by GD for joint work for the country’s European Union membership candidate status and instead launch a separate format last week. 

Samkharadze, who chairs the Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that “the alternative process means that the three parties live in an alternative reality”. 

• Ruling party presents strategy for EU membership candidate status

Reminding of the United National Movement, Lelo and the Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition parties that they had received only 1/3rd of the seats in the state legislature, the MP said that the parties “have no public support and no levers to discredit the working process for Georgia’s European integration”. 

The decision by the three opposition parties, to offer an alternative working group, is a poor attempt to discredit the process launched by the ruling party to ensure the European Union membership candidate status for Georgia [by the end of this year]. The parties, which refuse to join the ruling party proposed working group, are interested in Georgia’s non-receiving the status”, Samkharadze stated. 

In remarks to the comments by the ruling party, the three opposition parties claimed that the “current authorities and the ruling party are only engaged with discrediting the West and have no plans to stand up for Georgia’s EU candidacy”. 

Georgia, which was granted EU perspective in June of this year, has a six-month term to meet 12 conditions for EU candidacy in December. 

• MEP disapproves Georgian opposition’s plans to boycott ruling party’s working format for EU candidacy

Several MEPs have called on the opposition to work with the ruling party to ensure the fulfilment of the European Commission recommendations.