The EU plans to reintroduce its visa regime with Georgia if Tbilisi does not curb what the 27-member bloc and its institutions described as “backsliding of democratic principles,” Brussels announced on Tuesday.
The European Commission is to send a letter to the executive in Tbilisi, suspending the visa liberalisation regime in place since 2017, by 31 August.
“The assault on democracy by Georgian Dream (the ruling party) is growing more severe,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the final press conference following the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
“What can we do? This includes suspending the visa-free regime, the association agreement and sanctions,” she explained.
The possible suspension of the visa-free regime creates concerns among member states.
Controversial measures
Some ministers who attended the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels fear that the restrictive measure may harm the Georgian people without affecting the country’s leadership, and may backfire against the EU’s interests.
In Georgia, 80% of the public is pro-European, whereas, according to the EU, the current government of the South Caucasian country is serving the interests of Moscow.
“We think that restrictions should be put on those who are responsible for repression and not on the people of Georgia,” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski commented at the end of the Council.
For Kallas, the EU should be consistent with its political principles and needs.
“So far we have got this position that we don’t want to hurt Georgian people. And taking away the visa-free regime, it’s really having an impact on them, but at the same time it’s also an issue of credibility of the EU,” Kallas said.
According to Georgian Dream, the ruling party controlled by millionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, the EU seeks to influence and intimidate Georgian public opinion, given the municipal elections scheduled for next October.
Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of the Georgian Dream Party, slammed the threats of a possible suspension of Georgia’s visa-free regime.
“All of this is part of the blackmail we have been seeing in recent years, especially since (Russia’s) war broke out,” Kaladze said. “Georgia did not submit to (EU and NATO) demands, did not join the sanctions, did not allow a ‘second front’ to open in the country”.
Is the EU losing Georgia?
The European Parliament adopted last week in Strasbourg a strongly worded resolution against what the EU legislators call “the self-proclaimed authorities established by the Georgian Dream party following the rigged parliamentary elections of 26 October 2024.”
According to the Georgian Dream, the opposition is working against the national interest along with the EU.
“They (the opposition) were defeated in the October parliamentary elections. Their actions are beyond any decency, and now we hear these statements. However, when it comes to the country and its interests, compromise is unimaginable,” concluded Kaladze.
Last autumn’s elections sparked a wave of protests that lasted more than six months, primarily against the government in Georgia, amid accusations of election fraud.
The EU is highly concerned by the wave of detentions carried out by the Georgian authorities against journalists and some members of the opposition. The authorities arrested at least seven opposition figures in recent months.
Tobias Cremer, a German MEP from the Socialist and Democrats (S&D) group, was one of the principal authors of the European Parliament’s resolution on Georgia.
Cramer told Euronews that the democratic backsliding in Georgia is occurring intentionally with the support of Russia and its allies within the Georgian executive, legislative, and judicial systems. “We also have to look at those in the system who are unlawfully trying to divert the cause of justice”, he said.
No agreement on sanctions
Recent arrests and convictions of political activists and journalists have raised alarm in the EU about the Georgian justice system. This is why targeted sanctions against specific judges and government officials have been proposed, so far without success, as there is no consensus among the member states.
On 24 June, politician Giorgi Vashadze of the centrist Strategy Aghmashenebeli party was sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing to testify in an official probe that Georgian Dream’s critics call an act of political revenge.
The day before, three other opposition figures were handed comparable sentences after refusing to cooperate with the same parliamentary inquiry investigating alleged wrongdoings by the government of former President Mikhail Saakashvili, who is still in prison.
Last month, Kaladze dismissed allegations that any of the arrests had been politically motivated, saying politicians aren’t exempt from the law.
“I think we all know very well why these people are detained. They broke the law, they didn’t appear at the commission. The status of a politician or any other person cannot be an incentive to break the law,” he said.
Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022, along with Ukraine and Moldova, and was granted candidate country status in December 2023.
Just months later, growing concerns and disagreements between Brussels and the Georgian government prompted the two sides to freeze the enlargement process.
As a result, the financial support from the European Peace Facility, worth €30 million, was suspended in 2024, and no support is planned for this year.
Meanwhile, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told Euronews in May that his country plays a “vital role for Europe.”
“Everyone should recognise Georgia’s strategic importance for Europe, especially for the eurozone. Our role in the region is significant, and that’s why the need for dialogue with Georgian leaders is increasingly acknowledged,” he added.
Georgian troubled decades
Russian troops attacked Georgia in August 2008, just three months after a crucial NATO summit in Bucharest that welcomed Tbilisi and Kyiv’s aspirations to open membership talks. The Russian army occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia within a few weeks. These two regions are still under Moscow’s control.
Since the 2008 war, the Georgian government has had to find a balance between the EU aspirations of almost 80% of its population and the understanding of the strategic priorities of its northern neighbour, Russia, especially after it started its all-out war against Ukraine in early 2022.
In fact, despite its EU candidacy, Tbilisi has not aligned with EU sanctions against Russia. In 2024, the Georgian parliament passed the foreign agents law, a legislative measure that significantly restricted the activities of foreign-funded NGOs in the country.
Kallas has also threatened to suspend the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, which entered into force in 2016.
Association treaties are binding agreements between the EU and third countries that establish enhanced trade, economic and political cooperation in return for political and legislative reforms compatible with the principles of the Union.
The benefits for the contracting countries may also include the trade most-favoured-nation clause, as the association agreement often provides for a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement.
Similarly, the EU expressed concerns when Georgia ratified a free trade agreement with China in 2018.
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