Georgian officials slam EU over candidate meeting snub

Georgian Dream officials have slammed the EU and Poland for not inviting them to an informal meeting held with the foreign ministers of EU candidate countries in Warsaw on Thursday.

According to IPN, when asked why Georgia was not invited to join the meeting, Germany’s Ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, cited the EU’s decision in June 2024 to ‘suspend high-level contacts with the Georgian government until it resolves the current crisis’.

At the time, the ruling Georgian Dream party had just passed its foreign agent law. It has since won a parliamentary election disputed by the opposition and has announced its intent to freeze its EU membership bid.

‘I hope that Georgia, as a country, with all its citizens, will return to the right path. We hope, but it depends on Georgia. And what is Georgia? Georgia is the Georgian people, and when joining the European Union, not only the government becomes a member, not only the parliament becomes a member, not only the business sector, but everyone’, Fischer said.

‘Great national efforts are needed to join. We have offered you candidacy, the best thing we can do’, he added.

The following day, as his delegation marked Europe Day at Expo Georgia in Tbilisi, EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński delivered remarks critical of the ruling Georgian Dream party and their decision to freeze the country’s EU membership bid.

‘Georgia and the European Union have a long history of successful partnership. This relationship has brought many benefits to the people of Georgia’, he said. ‘Look around, see [for] yourself what the EU has done in your villages and cities’.

‘Today, unfortunately, as a result of the actions taken by Georgia’s authorities, Georgia’s European integration process has been stopped. If the current situation continues, Georgia risks missing a historic opportunity [to become] a member of the European Union for a long time. Even more, Georgia’s democracy is again in danger’.

He added that becoming an EU member ‘is an opportunity, not an obligation […] based on the sovereign choice of the people and the state’.

‘If Georgia returns to the path of democratic development, we are ready to work with you for Georgia’s EU membership’, he said.

Georgian Dream hits back

The following day, several Georgian officials criticised the EU’s decision not to invite Georgia to attend the informal meeting.

Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili singled out Poland in his criticism, saying that it showed the ‘wrong attitude of the Polish government towards the Georgian people’.

‘The current Polish Foreign Minister believes that [imprisoned former President] Mikheil Saakashvili is a moderniser. Poland has such a government today. This decision is an unfriendly act towards the Georgian people. For a government that believes that Mikheil Saakashvili was a moderniser, of course, such an unfriendly step is not surprising.’

‘It turns out that the Polish government does not understand what the status of a candidate means and puts friendship with Saakashvili above rules, procedures, and the interests of the Georgian people,’ he added.

Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili claimed that there was no democratic backsliding in Georgia, and accused the EU of having double standards.

‘It is thanks to the Georgian people that we have this government […] There is no less democracy than anywhere else in Georgia, no democratic backsliding. This is our position. We cannot fix double standards so suddenly. It is a double standard that what is permissible in France, Germany, will cause outrage in Georgia. This government is the choice of the Georgian people and respect it!’

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OC MediaXandie (Alexandra) Kuenning