Georgian Parliament Speaker criticises Brussels’ “bureaucratic attitude” toward Georgia

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday responded to criticism from Germany’s Ambassador to Georgia Peter Fischer regarding laws adopted by the Georgian Government, saying that Brussels’ present bureaucracy was impeding Georgia’s path to the EU and called on EU institutions to respect the national interests of candidate countries.

“One of the factors hindering Georgia’s progress toward EU membership today is Brussels’ current bureaucracy. They will come up with a million excuses, which is why it is important for Brussels to change - its attitudes must change, and it must respect the national interests of other countries”, the Speaker said.

“Until Brussels begins to respect our national interests, it will be difficult for us to deal with people like this. We fled the Soviet Union because it did not respect our national interests, and now we are being asked to place ourselves in a bureaucracy that would treat us the same way. I agree with Mr. Fischer that with such an attitude, our relations with the EU will indeed be difficult - that is the problem”, Papuashvili concluded.

As the European Parliament moves to tighten transparency regulations, Germany’s Ambassador has been critical of laws recently adopted in Georgia, including legislation on transparency.

Ambassador Fischer stated that under this legal framework, Georgia would not be able to become a member of the European Union.