Georgian Parliament official says visa-free travel weaponised as “political blackmail” by EU bureaucracy

Archil Gorduladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, on Saturday stated that visa-free travel with the European Union was being used as a tool of pressure against Georgia by an “unelected bureaucracy” currently influencing the EU.

In his remarks with Imedi TV, Gorduladze argued that the visa-free travel is governed by a bilateral agreement between Georgia and the EU, which outlines specific, formal criteria.

“From a legal perspective, the main thing is whether these specific requirements are met”, Gorduladze said. “Is Georgia’s legislation strict enough to prevent illegal migrants from staying in Georgia or using the country as a transit route to the EU? In this regard, we have significantly tightened our laws. Just recently, at our initiative, the Parliament of Georgia adopted several legislative amendments”.

According to the MP, the current discussions surrounding the potential suspension of the visa-free travel are driven by political motives rather than legal or factual realities.

He described the visa-free travel as the “only bullet” left for unelected bureaucrats who currently hold total influence across the EU to deploy against Georgia.

Gorduladze claimed that these actors are attempting to use the visa-free status as a mechanism of blackmail to exert psychological pressure on the Georgian public, aiming to force them into making decisions they do not support. The MP also emphasized that the Georgian public has no desire to return to the political reality of the 2003–2012 period.

The Committee Chair further noted that the mechanism for suspending visa-free travel was modified a few months ago. According to Gorduladze, the process has been simplified and made entirely dependent on political expediency rather than objective legal evaluations.