The European Union representation in Georgia on Monday welcomed the decision of the ruling Georgian Dream party to send the domestic deoligarchisation bill to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for recommendations before its final approval.
Proposed by the ruling party as part of work for fulfilling conditions for obtaining the EU membership candidate status, the bill has already been adopted with its first and second readings, with only the final reading ahead.
Praising the decision as a “positive step”, the EU mission said it was “important to consult international standard setters and implement their recommendations”.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the Georgian Dream party in the parliament, on Monday said it was “no problem” to request the feedback for the bill, adding the ruling team had been waiting to find out the Commission’s response to a similar Ukrainian law, which had been used for drafting the Georgian version, before making a decision on forwarding it to the body.
Remark on “de-oligarchisation” draft law
— EU Delegation Georgia ???????? (@EUinGeorgia) November 28, 2022
We welcome the announcement that @Geoparliament will take the positive step of sending the “de-oligarchisation” draft law to @VeniceComm for opinion. Important to consult international standard setters & implement their recommendations. pic.twitter.com/QkO8cgi283
He reiterated the authors of the domestic bill had used the Ukrainian legislation to draft the document, and recent “incorrect” reports over an alleged recall of the bill from the Commission by Ukraine had sparked controversies.
The Venice Commission is scheduled to provide its recommendations for Ukraine next year”, Mdinaradze said, adding the Georgian government had considered the advice of EU representatives and the country’s allies to request the recommendations and “thus, we postpone to approve the bill until the feedback is available”.
In their comments on the bill, a section of opposition has said it “must include” Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling party and former prime minister, as a “shadow ruler” of the country, while authors of the bill have pointed to criteria for defining oligarchs as outlined in the document and said mentioning specific names in the bill would be “very undemocratic”.
While in Georgia earlier this month, Oliver Varhelyi, the EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, said that legal amendments requested by the bloc “do not apply to specific individuals” and advised the Georgian authorities to request the Venice Commission recommendations over the bill.