The President of Georgia signed amendments related to the domestic medical sector and intellectual property rights despite having “several question marks” over the changes.

Salome Zourabichvili decided not to use her veto on the bills “considering ongoing challenges and current needs” in the sectors.

“The amendments, proposed by the Georgian Dream for the Health Protection Law, served to reduce potential risks to citizens’ life and health and improve quality control, but the frequency and tightening of the medical sector controls could hamper its activities.

Conducting unplanned controls without prior permission of the court and frequent planned controls give administrative supervision a certain leverage to influence the sector if desired.

Paying close attention to enforcement of new mechanisms could prevent selective application of the law”, - reads the statement of the President’s Administration.

In remarks on copyright law amendments, Salome Zourabichvili said she believed they could bring the domestic legislation closer to European standards as it served to improve the protection of authors’ rights to some extent.

However, she pointed to the risk of organizations influenced by Russia occupying an “exclusive place in the field, which had already happened in other countries”.