Georgian parliament speaker: article by CEPS’ authors on Georgia’s EU prospects “negligently” done

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili says that the recent article by two authors of  the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a leading think tank on EU affairs, has come with “inaccuraccies” and was done “negligently.”

 

Papuashvili said on Tuesday that the article contracted the organization’s previous publications and contained mistakes, for instance, on Georgia’s post – 2020 election political crisis.

 

He cited the researcher of CEPS Tinatin Akhvlediani as saying that the article did not represent the views of the organization. 

 

“This publication represents the views of its authors. I am not its author and this is not a position I support. Instead of creating false narratives about me and my opinions, please read my publications from CEPS, Euractiv and Euronews,” Akhvlediani wrote on Twitter

 

The article said that Georgia was a paradox.

 

“On the one hand, its implementation of the economic parts of its Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU has been impressive. In this respect it has surpassed not only Ukraine and Moldova, but also some of the candidate states of the Western Balkans. It has largely eliminated common corruption, with a better performance than quite a few EU Member States,” said the authors.

 

They stated that on the other hand, Georgia’s  political regime has for years been contradicting the EU’s fundamental values on the functioning of democratic institutions and the rule of law.

 

“At the heart of the problems lies the concentration of effective political power in the hands of an unelected, unaccountable oligarch, Bidzina Ivanishvili, embodying the paradigm of state capture,” said the article.

 

Georgia officially applied for EU membership on March 3 of this year.