Georgian Parliament official: informal oligarchic networks use NGOs to advance their interests

Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on European Integration, on Friday said that Elon Musk’s remarks about NGO dominance in Europe reflected long-standing concerns in Georgia about opaque, oligarchic networks that operate outside democratic accountability.

Makhashvili responded to the statement of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, who said that “the NGO bureaucracy controls Europe, depriving people of democracy”.

In his remarks, Makhashvili said that powerful informal networks influence political processes through NGOs, allowing them to avoid public scrutiny and democratic oversight.

“There are informal, oligarchic influences - what we and Trump call the deep state - that use NGOs to pursue their own goals. But the main problem here is something else. By using NGOs, this process bypasses transparency obligations and elections. That is why there was such heightened resistance regarding Georgia – when Georgia adopted transparency laws and other legislation that improved transparency and accountability in the country”, he said.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the non-governmental organisation system was the greatest evil that the West had created in the countries of new democracies in Eastern Europe, as it was an attempt to replace the public with small lobbying groups pursuing their interests.