“We were a little surprised that the Government’s statement that Georgia doesn’t need EUR 75 million in assistance, despite the high unemployment and poverty rate and of course the impact of COVID. Such a statement made today the US Ambassador to Georgia.

“I’m sure Washington will take note of that as well. What my understanding is that this assistance was tied to important judicial reforms. And that was clear last year when the package was discussed between the European Union and the Georgian government.

So again, these are important reforms that need to be made and we hope that that will continue to be the case. Of course, there are difficult reforms and some good reforms have been made, which is very encouraging and, again, it’s now important that whether it’s tied to EUR 75 million or not that these reforms are made.

The US Congress is watching what happens here, and we always coordinate with the Georgian government as to what kind of support they need and want. And so, I’m sure they will take note of the government’s statement that they don’t need EUR 75 million in assistance”, - said Kelly Degnan.