Ruling party head says Venice Commission feedback on deoligarchisation bill will be taken into account

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the feedback received from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the domestic bill on deoligarchisation, a part of the conditions for obtaining the European Union membership candidate status, would be taken into account. 

In his remarks, Kobakhidze highlighted “great progress” in the country over the recent years in fighting corruption, and said Georgia was “far ahead” of Ukraine and Moldova, the two states that have received the EU membership candidate status.

The law [on deoligarchisation] cannot be adjusted to [include specific people’s names] - the law must be abstract. This is one of the conclusions of the theory of law. Therefore, in order not to leave much room for speculation, we had directly translated the Ukrainian law and adopted it in the first reading”, Kobakhidze said.

The party Chair added the Commission had outlined five “specific, essentially technical notes”, which he said would be used to amend the law before its approval.

Kobakhidze added the adoption of the bill would mean “another” of the EU recommendations being taken into account by domestic legislators.