Ruling team to “actively work” on EU conditions for membership candidate status - Parliament Committee Chair
Anri Okhanashvili, the chair of the Georgian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the ruling team would continue to “actively work” on the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status. Photo: Parliament of Georgia
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Anri Okhanashvili, the chair of the Georgian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the ruling team would continue to “actively work” on the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status, and stressed that “the involvement of all political parties and stakeholders will be ensured in this process”.
[T]he [ruling] Georgian Dream team continues to actively work on the 12-point plan [outlined by the EU]. Of course, this process will be inclusive, the involvement of all political parties and stakeholders will be ensured”, the Parliament official said.
The ruling party published an action plan to address the EU conditions on July 1 and called on the opposition to cooperate to address several issues to receive the 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.
Michael Rupp, a representative of the European Commission, on July 13 said that the European Commision would present a report on the priorities in the enlargement package in 2023 to give the Georgian political system “sufficient time” to “thoroughly work” on the priorities for membership candidate status.
The official noted that after a “careful deliberation” it had been decided “not to rush” the Georgian political forces in their attempts to depolarise the country’s political environment - a condition for the EU membership status - and to ensure “thorough work” on related reforms.
The ruling Georgian Dream and four parliamentary opposition groups involved in the GD-proposed working format for gaining the European Union membership candidate status for the country held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss issues of the judiciary system in the country.
Gia Volski, a ruling party MP and the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Tuesday said the domestic “radical opposition” had “already openly declared” that causing a destabilisation in the country remained its “strategic plan”.
Levan Ioseliani, a member of the Citizens opposition party and the Vice Speaker of the Parliament, on Monday said alternative working formats proposed by three Parliamentary opposition parties for work on Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status contradicted a “direct request” of the European partners that domestic stakeholders should be involved together in the working process over the matter.
MEP Viola von Cramon on Friday said she disapproved of the plans of a part of the Georgian opposition to create parallel groups and boycott a working format proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party for the country to fulfil the European Union's 12-point conditions and obtain the membership candidate status in December.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the domestic opposition was “doing everything” to prevent the country from receiving the European Union membership candidate status as it believed the outcome would boost the Government’s position.
Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Rati Ionatamishvili on Tuesday said it was “important” that the process of implementing the action plan for the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status continued “proactively”.
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said there were domestic political groups that did not want the country to receive the European Union membership candidate status as the result would “automatically imply that the Government has done a good job”.
The progress in the implementation of the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status was discussed on Wednesday in a meeting between the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and diplomatic representatives of EU member states in Tbilisi.
Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chairman of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Tuesday said the aim of the opposition United National Movement, Lelo and Strategy Aghmashenebeli parties was to “cast a shadow” over the process of the implementation of the European Union conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status.
Anri Okhanashvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the lawmaking body would “further strengthen” legislative activities directed against corruption.
The activities of the parliamentary working groups, created to review the judicial reforms for fulfilling the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status, and the progress in the implementation process were discussed on Tuesday by Anri Okhanashvili, the Head of Georgian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the Georgian Dream ruling party and Julien Crampes, the Acting Head of the European Union Delegation to Georgia.