Georgian Parliament Speaker denies opposition claims of €14bln foreign assistance being “blocked” by ruling party

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday denied the domestic opposition’s claims of €14 billion in assistance from European authorities to the country being “blocked” by the ruling Georgian Dream party ahead of the parliamentary elections next month as “ordinary lies”.

Papuashvili’s comments came after the opposition United National Movement party alleged the assistance was supposed to have been received from funds of the country’s European partners to aid its economic development.

UNM said one of the party's election promises would be to unlock access to the alleged funding in case of its victory in the elections.

Papuashvili said the claim on the funding had not been verified and accused those who had raised the topic of “promoting false narratives with support of foreign funding”.

It is very interesting that [domestic groups] which receive substantial funding from American and European funds have not validated this statement. Instead, they choose to remain silent. It appears that they just came up with a random number and lied about someone giving €14 billion to Georgia”, he alleged.

This is yet another instance of foreign interference in Georgian elections. NGOs that are supposed to expose lies are actually covering them up with foreign funding. There is a responsibility that comes with this - these NGOs are funded by EU or United States budget funds, and it is their responsibility to promote false narratives”, the lawmaker added.

Papuashvili also referenced past claims about supposed financial aid being tied to the country being granted the EU membership candidate status, before adding Georgia and Moldova had received the status but “somehow we did not see money falling from the skies” as a result.