European Council President warns Georgian gov’t of possible problems with EU financial aid
Author
Front News Georgia
European Council President Charles Michel has stated that a deadline for disbursement of macro financial assistance is looming and it is time for the Georgian government ‘to demonstrate its commitment’ to the agreements and notably the reform agenda.’
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Underlined to prime minister <a href=”https://twitter.com/GharibashviliGe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@GharibashviliGe</a> that reforms are as needed as ever.<br><br>The deadline for disbursement of macro financial assistance is looming and it is time for the Georgian government to demonstrate its commitment to the agreements and notably the reform agenda. <a href=”https://t.co/v3GblCpssN”>pic.twitter.com/v3GblCpssN</a></p>— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) <a href=”https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1430049715165573147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Garibashvili and Michel met in Kyiv yesterday, during the Crimea Platform Forum.
Michel was the author of the EU-mediated agreement in April 2021 to help Georgian political parties solve almost a seven-month political crisis in Georgia which began after the 2020 parliamentary elections.
The agreement was signed by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and majority of opposition parties, except the main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), European Georgia and the Labour party.
Unlike the Labour party and European Georgia, UNM entered parliament. However, it refused to sign the agreement because it disliked a note in it on amnesty of convicts of June 2019 protests in Tbilisi.
The ruling party backed out of the EU-mediated agreement at the end of July 2021 and accused the UNM of not fulfilling the agreement.
However, the ruling party promised it would implement all the reforms outlined in the agreement.
The opposition is sure that the GD left the agreement because it was afraid of the stipulation in it which obliged the ruling party to acepot the conduct of repeat parliamentary elections if it received less than 43% of votes in the upcoming municipal elections.
Garibashvili has responded to Michel’s tweet by saying that ‘I reassured the European Council President that Georgia remains committed to the reform agenda outlined in the April 19 Agreement. A significant part of these reforms has already been implemented and we are determined to continue working on the remaining important reforms as well.’
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Reassured <a href=”https://twitter.com/eucopresident?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@eucopresident</a> that <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Georgia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Georgia</a> remains committed to the reform agenda outlined in the April 19 Agreement. A significant part of these reforms has already been implemented & we are determined to continue working on the remaining important reforms as well. <a href=”https://t.co/cUOJq9aSuJ”>pic.twitter.com/cUOJq9aSuJ</a></p>— Irakli Garibashvili (@GharibashviliGe) <a href=”https://twitter.com/GharibashviliGe/status/1430083181231890432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
