Ruling party official: EU accession talks removed from agenda to “prevent its use for blackmail”

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said the issue of opening European Union accession talks for Georgia would not be on the agenda “in order to prevent anyone from using this topic as a tool for blackmail” of the Georgian Government.

Mdinaradze’s comments came after Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday announced suspension of the talks and refusal to receive the bloc’s budget grants until 2028, citing interest in “dignified” integration amid a “cascade of insults and blackmail by European politicians and bureaucrats”.

In his social media message response on clashes between law enforcement and protesters against the development in Tbilisi on Thursday and Friday, Mdinaradze said violence was “condemnable and categorically unacceptable towards absolutely everyone, whether it is a police officer, a journalist, or any other citizen”.

For the next four years, we will continue intensive work on fulfilling the obligations outlined in the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement [with the EU]. However, the issue of opening the accession talks will not be on the agenda in order to prevent anyone from using this topic as a tool for blackmail. If such a decision [on opening the talks for Georgia] is made on [EU’s] part, they should put it on the table, and it will be signed immediately”, the ruling party official said.

Kobakhidze on Friday also pledged his Government’s “unwavering commitment” to EU integration.

He reiterated the Government’s readiness to fulfil “over 90 percent” of its obligations under the Association Agenda and the Free Trade deal with the bloc by 2028, and pledged the country would be “more prepared for EU membership by 2030 than any other candidate state”.