Georgian Parliament Speaker criticises EU for turning visa-free travel into political tool

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday sharply criticised the European Union, accusing it of applying unfair political pressure on Georgia and violating international agreements.

Speaking to journalists, Papuashvili reacted to reported EU expectations that Georgia impose sanctions on Russia as part of its broader political alignment with the bloc. He argued that such demands were being linked to Georgia’s visa-free travel with the EU in an inappropriate way.

“The case concerns the introduction of a visa for diplomatic passports. When the visa was introduced, it was a violation of an international agreement by the European Union. The European Union is a violator of international law towards Georgia, which in itself is a great shame, but we see that the sense of shame in Brussels no longer exists. At the moment when they realised that this was a violation of international law, they introduced additional rules, specifically for Georgia, where they added political criteria to the previously existing criteria, which were of a technical nature, which have never existed since the European Union, visa and visa-free travel, ever existed”, the Speaker said.

“They spent time creating special rules and adapting them to Georgia. This is the second violation. Thirdly, with these political criteria, with their intelligence and thinking, they opened up the freedom to demand whatever they want from us. Now there are no limits to imagination. Sometimes they tell us that we have to impose sanctions on Russia, to kill ourselves if we want visa-free travel. If we kill ourselves and die, who will be able to travel visa-free in the European Union?! It is clear that we cannot destroy the country because Brussels wants to turn visas into a political tool, which is another third violation. This is the immature policy of the European Union. That is why [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio does not even meet with [EU’s foreign affairs representative] Kaja Kallas, they do not even consider her worthy of meeting”, he concluded.