Parliament official: No proof of alleged evasion of int’l sanctions in European Parliament report

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday said the annual report of the European Parliament about Georgia included an “absurd note” on the country’s alleged evasion of sanctions imposed by the international community against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine and there was not presented “any proof of it” in the report. 

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In his comments to the media, Samkharadze pointed out that before making the aforementioned record in the report, the Member of the European Parliament, Anna Fotyga had received information from Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, denying the fact of the circumvention of sanctions in Georgia but it was not taken into consideration.

While commenting about possible personal sanctions on the former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Samkharadze said he did not expect the executive body of the EU would share the “particular” appeals and impose sanctions on Ivanishvili, as there has been no evidence to prove that the latter interfered in Georgian politics.

He added the ruling Georgian Dream party would not have any official response to the report and continue meetings with MEPs, but they would “demand” from the “authors” of the amendments to provide “specific” evidence on their statements or reject them.

Samkharadze urged the MEPs to review the international ratings published by various international governmental and non-governmental organisations depicting Georgia’s progress and added that despite the aforementioned amendments to the report, there had been “positive messages” from the European Commission on the process of the implementation of the 12 point conditions set by the EU for granting the country the bloc’s membership candidate status.