Georgian President, EU ambassadors discuss European integration, protest rallies against controversial transparency bill

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and the ambassadors of the European Union member states in Georgia on Saturday discussed the country’s European integration amid the protest rallies against the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence.

In her address to the media and the ambassadors, Zourabichvili said “there should be less provocation on the part of the Government and more understating of what is the general will of the population”, after which the meeting, held in the Orbeliani Palace, continued in the closed format.

The President expressed willingness to hold the meeting with EU ambassadors “regularly in order to keep you informed of the situation [in Georgia]” and thanked them “for the statements made in support of Georgia, [and] the country’s European path”.

The protests have been ongoing against the draft law that calls for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.