May 12, 2025 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

On May 11, Georgian Dream Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili visited Budapest to participate in the annual Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments (EUSC), which was held on May 12. Papuashvili is also expected to hold bilateral meetings during the visit.

The GD delegation includes Nikoloz Samkharadze, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Levan Makhashvili, chair of the EU Integration Committee.

Papuashvili’s Speech at EUSC

Papuashvili opened his address by stating Georgia’s solidarity with Ukraine amid ongoing Russian aggression: “Georgia always supported and will always support Ukraine and its fight for its independence and territorial integrity.”

In his address he detracted the EU for “speaking us with the language of directives” and “intervening” with Georgian sovereignty. Papuashvili said that while European integration offers significant advantages, it must not come at the expense of national traditions and democratic self-governance.

“The centralized EU structure sometimes imposes strict conditionality that does not necessarily reflect the consensus,” complained the GD Parliament Speaker.

“As Europe faces serious challenges, the debate about federalism and national sovereignty should center on maximizing the benefits of integration while respecting the autonomy and traditions of member states,” he said. “Excessively empowered center structures of the European Union might not allow for making the decision that best reflects the unique political, economic, and cultural context of each country.”

Despite GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s November 28, 2024 announcement that the country would halt its EU membership process until 2028, Papuashvili claimed that the GD government remains committed to the European membership path. He described the Georgian Dream administration as the one that has “done the most to advance Georgia towards the EU,” but criticized what he called a “peculiar treatment” by EU institutions.

“While the parliament is elected by the Georgian people and represents its will, regrettably, we see attendance by some European institutions to speak with us in the language of directives, imposing obligations without granting the rights,” Papuashvili said. “Having obligations without the right of the voice, especially within the EU institutions where Georgia has no representation as yet, does not fit well with the very principle of democratic pluralism on which the EU rests.”

The GD Parliament Speaker particularly took aim at EU calls for judicial reform and for the introduction of a “vetting” system involving international oversight, calling it a violation of national sovereignty. “This system, if accepted, will contradict the very principle of democracy, where authorities stem from the people… I doubt that any of the EU member states would have allowed such an intervention in their sovereignty,” he said.

In its 2023 Communication on EU Enlargement Policy, the EU Commission, expressing concern about the integrity and independence of the Georgian judiciary spoke of the need for Georgia to establish a system of extraordinary integrity checks, with the involvement of international experts, for all leading positions in the judiciary, and to establish a system of effective assets declarations. Prime Minister Kobakhidze later argued such vetting would violate Georgia’s constitution.

He called for “giving a more critical examination to the current debate about replacing consensus-based decision-making with a majority principle.” He said: “Democracy should be based on deliberation, not imposition,” adding: “In a community of nation-states, small states’ voices should be heard equal to the others because the truth is not measured by the quantity alone.”

More to follow…

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