EU Openly Demonstrated Its Discontent about Georgia

Leaders of the EU told the prime minister of Georgia that the implementation of democratic reforms is urgently needed in the country, if Tbilisi wants to cooperate with Brussels.

Correspondent for the Radio Liberty Koba Liklikadze reported from Prague about it. In his letter published on the website of the Radio Liberty (http://www.tavisupleba.org/content/article/1987706.html) Liklikadze wrote that the warning of the EU leaders coincided with the scandal caused by the simulated reportage released by the Imedi-TV in Georgia; the Prime-Minister had to justify for the reportage in Brussels.

“It is the first occasion when the EU openly expressed its disappointment in Georgia. In the past, EU never spoke so openly about their disappointment by the democratic reforms carried out by the Mikheil Saakashvili’s government. But on March 17, when the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso spoke about the deficiency between the instable state of the South Caucasus and reality, he selected new and stricter tone,” the journalist wrote in the letter.

You can also read a quotation from Barroso’s speech where the president said: “The EU hopes that the intensive work for the consolidation of democratic institutions will continue in order to establish inclusive political culture and promote complete freedom of media. Progress is urgently needed in order to achieve these goals in Georgia if this country really wants integration with the EU.”

The EC President added that all democratic reforms shall be completed.

“Among them is respect for the freedom of media. It also deals with the upcoming elections of local self-government. I think, it is very important to set up better links between EU and Georgia,” said Barroso.

Barroso said the local self-governmental elections in May are a new chance for the government of Georgia to comply with international standards of political pluralism and fair and free elections.

“Officials of the EU have been hiding their disappointment about the increasing authoritarianism and unstable government of the president Saakashvili since the Rose Revolution in 2003. On March 17, the EC president Jose Manuel Barroso assessed the mystification as “astonishing”. However, Georgian Prime-Minister Nika Gilauri denied governmental control on the TV-Company Imedi,” it is said in the article.

Barroso underlined the importance of the EU opinion about the incident and warned the government of Georgia against complicating the situation.

“Existence of the EUMM in the conflict region is very important for Georgia. However, it is not unilaterally popular issue inside the block. France and Germany are afraid that it might complicate the relationship between the EU and Russia if a new conflict is launched between Moscow and Tbilisi. Besides that, if democratic indexes in Georgia worsen in the future, it might make the existence of the EUMM in the region doubtful,” wrote Koba Liklikadze in his article.