Georgian Foreign Minister: How was EU different from Soviet Union? It was Union of sovereign states - What do we see now?

Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili on Wednesday spoke out against what she described as growing interference by international organisations in the country’s internal affairs, warning that such practices pose a threat to the ability of sovereign states to exercise their lawful rights.

In her interview with Imedi TV, Botchorishvili noted that international institutions, which are expected to provide legal guidance and recommendations, are increasingly being used as political tools.

“We have said that the Venice Commission has turned into a political instrument and is making political assessments instead of issuing legal recommendations regarding laws. We experienced this firsthand: legal expertise on a law turned into the idea that this Government is unfit and should be replaced”, the FM said.

She further stressed that similar patterns can be observed in the work of institutions within the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

“We saw how events unfolded in the Council of Europe, in the Parliamentary Assembly, and how the Council of Europe’s institutions are being used. By the way, at the OSCE ministerial meeting in December in Vienna, I stated very clearly that institutions are being used as political instruments to interfere in a country’s domestic affairs”, she continued.

Botchorishvili further emphasised the importance of protecting the founding principles of the European Union, noting that the EU historically differed from the Soviet Union because it was based on cooperation among sovereign states.

“What do we like about the EU? What made it different from the Soviet Union? It was a union of sovereign states, which means a state has the sovereign right to decide its own domestic matters. Today, we see globalisation interpreted in a way where certain bodies are created that decide what should happen inside your country. The use of international organisations to interfere in domestic affairs has reached such an extent that all boundaries have been lost. Everything has been used to impose rules that someone came up with in some office”, she said.

The Minister also criticised what she described as artificial political processes initiated through international involvement, arguing that such initiatives often fail to reflect the real interests of political forces inside Georgia.