Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Papuashvili visits Hungary

On Monday, Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili spoke at the annual Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments (EUSC) in Budapest, where he again emphasised that Georgian Dream remains focused on pursuing EU membership.

Papuashvili said that Georgian Dream is the government that  has ‘done the most to advance Georgia towards the EU’, but then went on to criticise what he viewed as an inappropriate and overly paternalistic response from the EU to domestic political issues.

‘While the parliament is elected by the Georgian people and represents its will, regrettably, we see attendance by some European institutions to speak with us in the language of directives, imposing obligations without granting the rights’, Papuashvili said.

‘Having obligations without the right of the voice, especially within the EU institutions where Georgia has no representation as yet, does not fit well with the very principle of democratic pluralism on which the EU rests’.

He went on to comment on what he said is an unfortunate tendency from the EU to overemphasise the importance of larger states and bloc-wide government bodies at the expense of smaller nations.

‘Democracy shall be based on deliberation, not imposition. Consensus ensures that decisions are made collaboratively, respecting the interests and concerns of all member states and partners. This, also, means a Europe where decisions are made not only in centralised unelected bodies, but increasingly closer to the people’, Papuashvili said.

‘In this regard, it is worth giving a more critical examination to the current debate about replacing consensus-based decision-making with a majority principle. In a community of nation-states, small states’ voice[s] should be heard equal to the others, because the truth is not measured by the quantity alone’.

His visit comes as Georgia continues to drift further from the EU following Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement in November that the government was postponing its membership bid until 2028.

Since then, Georgian Dream officials have been increasingly frozen out of EU conferences and talks, including a recent informal meeting of candidate countries.

Hungary is likely Georgia’s closest remaining ally in the EU. While the EUSC is held on a rotating basis, it is unclear if Hungary’s hosting of the event was connected to the Georgian Dream delegation being invited in light of other recent snubs.

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