Parliament to focus on EU conditions in spring sessions - Committee Chair

Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chair of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Tuesday said the legislative body would focus on facilitating implementation of the European Union conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status in its spring sessions.

In remarks over the resumption of the Parliament’s work following the winter recess, Kadagishvili noted the European Commission's latest report on Georgia was an “additional motivation” to fulfil all conditions by the end of the year.

We are waiting for the conclusion of the Venice Commission [of the Council of Europe] on deoligarchisation and judicial reform”, he said in reference to the bills drafted by Georgian lawmakers and forwarded to the body for evaluation as part of the work on the conditions.

“The election of the Public Defender and the approval of the members of the Supreme Council of Justice will also be important”, the Parliament official said in comments on the upcoming Parliamentary work.

The assessment document of the European Commission gave us an additional incentive for cooperation on these issues, and for all decisions to be made by the Parliament [with the aim of seeing] all conditions being fulfilled by the end of the year”, Kadagishvili noted.

Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia, on Friday congratulated the country’s Government on the “positive report” on Georgia’s alignment with the European Union, released by the European Commission on Thursday.  

In his reaction, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stressed the document had “once again demonstrated” his country deserved the membership candidate status as a “top reformer”.