24/05/2024 Standing Committee
PACE’s Standing Committee, meeting in Vilnius, held a current affairs debate on “Recent challenges to democracy in Georgia”, focusing primarily on the controversial adoption by the Georgian Parliament of the law on transparency of foreign influence and the mass protests it has sparked.
Opening the debate, Edite Estrela (Portugal, SOC), one of the two PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia, said the new law should not be promulgated in its current form, pointing out that it was “fundamentally flawed” according to the Council of Europe’s expert legal body, the Venice Commission. Moreover, recent events had raised doubts about Georgia’s ability to adhere to international standards, she said, as well as its commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration, adding: “Constructive co-operation and dialogue have given way to harsh, intransigent rhetoric, and attacks on anyone questioning the policies being implemented by the Georgian authorities.”
On the other hand, Shalva Papuashvili, the President of the Georgian Parliament, addressing the Standing Committee online from Tbilisi, defended the law as “addressing the problem of non-transparent foreign funding in a streamlined and proportional way”, which fully respected fundamental human rights. “We cannot understand how transparency can be non-democratic and non-European,” he said, pointing out that other similar laws internationally were much stricter, and that it used language similar to an EU Directive. Georgia did not share the opinion of the Venice Commission, he concluded, declaring: “The veto of the President of Georgia will be overcome and this law will come into force.”
Speaking next, Veronika Bílková, a Vice-President of the Venice Commission, presented the Commission’s urgent opinion on the law, requested by the PACE President and adopted two days ago, which called for the law in its current form to be repealed. The law was “incompatible with international standards” she reiterated, citing its vague language, its unfair presumption that foreign funding implies foreign influence, and the “stigmatising” label it would apply to NGOs, potentially making it hard for them to operate, and pointing out that a Georgian law on registering entities already existed.
A number of other PACE members spoke in the debate. A current affairs debate gives rise to no text, and no vote is taken.