October 30, 2024 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

The European Commission has published its report on the alignment of Georgia with the EU acquis – its body of common rights and applications. This provides an assessment of the country’s accession readiness.

The press release of the Commission underlines the findings of OSCE/ODIHR on the parliamentary elections in Georgia, noting that the observer “identified several shortcomings that occurred in a tense and highly polarised environment,” and emphasizing that “these preliminary findings confirm the need for a comprehensive electoral reform that was already highlighted in past key recommendations.”

The report says that the Commission’s last year’s recommendations concerning fundamental human rights “have not been implemented.” Commenting on the report, EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński stated: “Let me say clearly: this [backsliding on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights chapter] is unprecedented for a country that aspires to join the EU.”

Ambassador emphasized that “Georgia’s candidate status was granted ‘on the understanding’ that nine steps – related mostly to rule of law and democracy – would be taken. Unfortunately, there was no sufficient political commitment by the Georgian authorities to implement the necessary reforms.” The Commission on its part, stressed that in the coming year Georgia should, in particular, repeal the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence and repeal the legislative package on Family Values and Protection of Minors.

The report notes Georgia’s rate of alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy remains considerably low at 49% (though up from 44% during the previous cycle) and that “Georgia has not participated in EU crisis management missions and operations under the common security and defence policy since June 2023.”

The report also stresses that “a number of direct flights to various destinations to/from Russia has significantly increased during the reporting period,” nuancing though that “Georgia cooperated with the EU to prevent circumvention of sanctions.”

“The EU supports Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and has been engaged since 2008 in peaceful conflict resolution efforts, including through the EU Monitoring Mission and the work of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia,” emphasizes the report.

Ambassador Herczyński summarized the spirit of the report by saying “This year, Georgia has gone backwards while other candidate countries have advanced, some of them already opening accession negotiations.”

He said the EU’s door remained open, but said the process is merit based and “without shortcuts” advising the leaders to read the report “very, very carefully” to find the path to re-engagement. “Georgia’s next government should reverse course, recommit to democratic principles and values if it wants to bring the country closer to the EU. This has to start with full transparency about the electoral process,” concluded Ambasador Herczyński.

EC uses four levels of preparedness from least to most prepared: early stage of preparation, some level of preparation, moderately well prepared, good level of preparation.

Georgia is assessed as being at early stage of preparation in four areas;

In two areas, Georgia is assesed as being between early stage of preparation and some level of preparation;

Georgia is assessed as having some level of preparation in 17 areas;

In one are, Georgia is assessed as being between some level of preparation and a moderate level of preparation;

Georgia is assessed as being moderately well prepared in 9 areas;

Georgia does not have a “good level” marking.

Chapters	Level of Preparation
Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights	Some level of preparation
Chapter 24: Justice, freedom and security	Some level of preparation
Chapter 5: Public procurement	Some level of preparation
Chapter 18: Statistics	Some level of preparation
Chapter 32: Financial control	Some level of preparation
Chapter 1: Free movement of goods	Some level of preparation
Chapter 2: Freedom of movement for workers	Early stage of preparation
Chapter 3: Right of establishment and freedom to provide services	Moderately prepared
Chapter 4: Free movement of capital	Moderately prepared
Chapter 6: Company law	Some level of preparation
Chapter 7: Intellectual property law	Some level of preparation
Chapter 8: Competition policy	Between early stage of preparation and some level of preparation
Chapter 9: Financial services	Some level of preparation
Chapter 28: Consumer and health protection	Some level of preparation
Chapter 10: Digital transformation and media	Some level of preparation
Chapter 16: Taxation	Between some level of preparation and a moderate level of preparation
Chapter 17: Economic and monetary policy	Moderately prepared
Chapter 19: Social policy and employment	Some level of preparation
Chapter 20: Enterprise and industrial policy	Moderately prepared
Chapter 25: Science and research	Moderately prepared
Chapter 26: Education and culture	Moderately prepared
Chapter 29: Customs union	Moderately prepared
Chapter 14: Transport policy	Some level of preparation
Chapter 15: Energy	Some level of preparation
Chapter 21: Trans-European networks	Some level of preparation
Chapter 27: Environment and climate change	Early stage of preparation
Chapter 11: Agriculture and rural development	Early stage of preparation
Chapter 12: Food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy	Some level of preparation
Chapter 13: Fisheries and aquaculture	Some level of preparation
Chapter 22: Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments	Between early stage of preparation and some level of preparation
Chapter 33: Financial and budgetary provisions	Early stage of preparation
Chapter 30: External relations	Moderately prepared
Chapter 31: Foreign, security and defence policy	Moderately prepared

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03/02/2023 – EC Publishes Analytical Reports on Alignment with the Acquis