Speaker of the Parliament responds to the visit of the Chairmen of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 8 EU countries to Tbilisi on the social network and notes that the Government representatives do not plan to meet with the members of the delegation.

Shalva Papuashvili also publishes the letter in which he explains the reasons for refusing the meeting to the European MPs.

We offer a response letter in Georgian:

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“I was not surprised by the arrival of a delegation consisting of members of Parliament from several EU countries. However, I was really surprised by the intention of some members of the delegation to meet with the political and parliamentary leadership of Georgia, despite their personal unfriendly attitude towards the Georgian Government and society.

While the Georgian government remains committed to facilitating dialogue with all relevant and interested EU parties, I cannot respond positively to this request for a meeting.

Some members of the delegation should not have any other expectations based on the unfriendly attitude towards Georgia that has been shown many times. It is obvious that the main reason for the visit is political bias, everyone can see it.

During the pre-election campaign, some members of the delegation and other foreign politicians constantly and purposefully violated Georgian legislation by conducting a public campaign against the ruling party of Georgia and supporting the opposition, thereby trying to illegally influence the will of the citizens.

Georgia’s constitution and election legislation prohibit foreign interference in elections, which was grossly ignored. By directly participating in election-related processes, especially in anti-government actions, these politicians grossly violated the principle of non-interference, which is a fundamental norm of international law enshrined in the UN Charter, and called into question the essence of the rules-based international order, for which they seem to only pay lip service to.

This contributed to deepening the political polarization of the radical part of the opposition, which worsened the pre-election environment and created the perception of tension around the elections.

However, this is not the first time that some members of this delegation are engaged in spreading disinformation against the Georgian people.

Such was the case, for example, of the campaign about the conditions of Mikheil Saakashvili’s imprisonment, which was proven false by the European Court of Human Rights.

Supporting such false narratives and disinformation spread by radical political parties has tarnished Georgia’s image abroad and undermined our population’s trust in the goodwill of our Western partners.

These actions and unfriendly rhetoric contribute to the attempt to use the EU enlargement process as a weapon to further embolden the opposition, undermine confidence in the election results and undermine the legitimacy of the elections.

The unfriendly rhetoric and actions of some members of the delegation towards Georgia and its government, which we have witnessed during the last 2.5 years, also hinder our efforts to maintain peace and democratic stability in Georgia.

It is impossible to present Europe as a project of peace and at the same time, in the name of Europe, sow chaos in the country.

Georgian society clearly responded to foreign interference in the October 26 elections, when Georgian Dream won another convincing victory.

Rejecting the elections and ignoring such a strong voice of the voters is the way that the opposition has been following for years and that the Georgian society has already got used to.

However, when the Georgian society sees the rejection of democracy by European politicians, it damages the trust in the European Union.

Considering the above, I consider it impossible to agree to the received request.

At the same time, I would like to express my respect to other members of the delegation and confirm the readiness to continue the dialogue within the framework of the fundamental principles and norms of parliamentary diplomacy, based on respect for equality and sovereignty”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.