Parliament Speaker claims European Foundation of Democracy, National Endowment for Democracy “concealing financial information”

Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker and a member of the Political Council of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday claimed the European Foundation of Democracy and the United States-based National Endowment for Democracy were “concealing” their financial information, amid ongoing protests against the ruling party-reintroduced bill on transparency of foreign influence.

We agree with our [international] partners that the [two organisations] are not disclosing their finances and [instead] hiding them - no-one denies this”, Papuashvili told a press briefing.

He also raised questions about the nature of the organisations - which he said “secretly spend money in another country” - and its “relation to democracy”, likening their work to that of “special services” and adding the alleged circumstance raised “further questions” about the groups.

The official claimed the organisations were “financiers of domestic opposition parties that are carrying out radical agendas today”.

The Georgian Parliament last week approved the second reading of the bill 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.

The legislative piece, supported by 83 MPs in the 150-member lawmaking body, requires subject groups to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise information on their funding.