Germany has suspended support projects for Georgia

Germany has suspended €200 million worth of support projects for Georgia and is discussing sanctions with its EU partners - from cancelling visa-free travel for the authorities to imposing targeted sanctions, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said.

‘In recent weeks and months, the Georgian Dream party has been moving the country further and further away from the EU, which also seriously jeopardises Georgia's long-standing partnership with Germany. As a result, we have reduced our co-operation with the country's authorities and suspended support projects worth more than 200 million euros,’ Berbock said in a statement published on the official portal of the German Foreign Ministry.

The minister added that at the same time Berlin is discussing with its EU partners further measures - ‘from the cancellation of visa-free regime for Georgian decision-makers to the introduction of targeted sanctions.’

According to the German Foreign Minister, the Georgian Dream has an anti-European course, with which the party has ‘deliberately frozen Georgia's EU accession process, effectively putting it on hold.’ ‘In the EU, we should reflect on the formal suspension of this process in response to the increasingly authoritarian policies of the Georgian Dream,’ Berbock urged, noting that the designation of candidate status for EU accession in December 2023 was linked to clear commitments to reforms.

‘The majority of Georgian citizens wish a continuation of the European path for their country. They carry Europe in their hearts and pro-European protests are their voice,’ the minister added.

As previously reported, EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting on 16 December to introduce visa restrictions for holders of Georgian service and diplomatic passports in connection with the situation in the country. It was reported that the relevant proposal from the European Commission will be received by the end of this year.

Earlier it was reported that elections of the new President of Georgia were held in the building of the Parliament of Georgia on Rustaveli Avenue on 14 December. The CEC announced that the candidate from the ruling Georgian Dream party Mikhail Kavelashvili was elected president of Georgia. Kavelashvili received 224 votes out of 300. He needed 200 votes to be elected president.

Earlier, the previous Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said that she would not resign from the presidency. She believes that ‘there can be no legitimate presidential elections under an illegitimate parliament.’ Zurabishvili also declared herself the only legitimate representative of power in the country. In response, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he understood ‘Zurabishvili's emotional state’, but ‘on inauguration day, 29 December, she will have to leave her residence and cede this building to the legitimately elected president’.

Another series of opposition protests began in Georgia on 28 November, after Kobakhidze announced his decision to suspend consideration of the start of negotiations on the country's EU membership until 2028. The protesters are using firecrackers, stones, bottles, and Molotov cocktail bottles found at the site of pogroms were reported. Law enforcers responded by using special equipment, including water cannons.

Reprinted from https://ria.ru/