Georgia’s ruling party official dismisses accusations from European bureaucrats as “baseless gossip”

Levan Machavariani, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party and Deputy Chair of the parliamentary faction of the ruling party, on Friday dismissed accusations from European bureaucrats as “baseless gossip” unsupported by facts, asserting that Georgian citizens could clearly distinguish between truth and disinformation.

Commenting on the 2024 Judicial Independence Index, Machavariani highlighted Georgia’s strong performance, ranking amongst Europe’s top 20 for judicial independence.

“When they make accusations against us, there are no facts to back them up. It’s simply gossip and an attempt to create certain perceptions. However, when we look at a specific study or report published by the European Commission itself - in this case, concerning the judicial system - Georgia ranks in the top 20 in Europe for judicial independence”, Machavariani said.

He pointed to the European Commission’s own report, which placed Georgia in the top 20 in Europe not only for judicial independence but also for strong state institutions, effective governance, and an attractive business environment for investors.

“Strong state institutions - here too, we are in Europe’s top 20. An effective Government. An attractive business environment for investors, and so on, as included in the European Commission’s report. All of this is based on facts and real circumstances”, he noted.

Machavariani underscored the public’s ability to discern reality from unfounded claims.

“Accordingly, our citizens can very well distinguish between right and wrong, and the absolute majority of our citizens clearly understand that these baseless accusations from Eurobureaucrats are founded on absolutely nothing but gossip”, he concluded.

The European Commission has published the 2024 Judicial Independence Index as part of the annual report by the European Center for Anti-Corruption and State-Building Studies. According to the assessment, Georgia scored 6.63 out of 10, placing 36th globally and securing a spot in the top 20 countries in Europe.

The findings highlight that Georgia outperforms all EU candidate states as well as 16 EU and NATO member countries, including Portugal, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Slovenia, Malta, Spain, Slovakia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Turkey, and North Macedonia.