Parliament official says sanctions not expected to be imposed on Georgia following European Council meeting

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Thursday said that no sanctions were expected to be imposed on Georgia due to a recently adopted domestic law on transparency of foreign influence following a European Council meeting on Thursday.

In his remarks over the matter, Samkharadze noted there would be “critical statements made as there had been before”, but there would not be “any type of funding cuts”.

From today's meeting of the European Council, we do not expect any sanctions to be imposed on Georgia. However, there will be critical statements, there have been before and there will be now. I do not think there will be any serious revision regarding financial matters. In the pre-election period, as a rule, high-level contacts are very rare, because such contacts can be considered as support for one or another political force”, he said in reference to the October parliamentary elections in the country.

"The dialogue [between Georgia and the EU] will continue. However, of course, all this will become more active after the parliamentary elections are held in Georgia and the Government with the new legitimacy will continue on the path of joining the European Union. I do not expect that any type of financing will be stopped", Samkharadze concluded.

Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Monday said the Georgian Government was “bringing the country away from its EU integration path” after the adoption of the controversial law, which requires the groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.