Day: November 4, 2025
⚡️ 🇦🇿🇦🇲 Following President Ilham Aliyev’s announcement in Kazakhstan on lifting transit restrictions, a grain train was sent to Armenia through the territory of Azerbaijan.#Azerbaijan #Armenia #Aliyev #Transit #Railway #Kazakhstan #Baku #Yerevan #SouthCaucasus… pic.twitter.com/KBLqPAJRuG
— No Brakes (Bez Tormozov) (@beztor_az) November 4, 2025
The European Commission says Georgia is “a candidate country in name only” that has “experienced serious democratic backsliding,” including through restrictive laws “unprecedented” among candidate countries, as Brussels adopts an annual package on EU enlargement.
“Following the December 2024 European Council Conclusions and in light of Georgia’s continued backsliding, the Commission considers Georgia a candidate country in name only,” the Commission said in a press release. “The Georgian authorities must demonstrate resolute commitment to reverse course and return to the EU accession path.”
In its Communication on EU Enlargement Policy, a 60-page document published on November 4, the Commission said the situation in Georgia has “significantly further deteriorated” since the European Council’s December 2024 regret over Tbilisi’s decision to suspend the accession process until 2028.
“In Georgia, the adopted and enforced restrictive laws targeting activists, civil society and independent media threaten the survival of democratic foundations and are unprecedented among candidate countries,” the Commission said in the document.
“Georgia has experienced serious democratic backsliding, with a rapid erosion of the rule of law and fundamental rights being severely restricted,” the document says.
“The systemic and systematic repressive actions of the authorities, including legislation curtailing civic space and fundamental rights, the functioning of independent media and targeting LGBTIQ persons, excessive use of force in full impunity by the law enforcement authorities and hostile rhetoric against the EU, are in stark contrast with EU values and the actions expected from an EU candidate country,” the report stresses.
The report further slams Georgia for instrumentalizing institutions designed to uphold the rule of law “for partisan objectives, thereby eroding their integrity.”
“No steps have been taken by the authorities to reverse the course of action and bring the country back on its EU path,” the report stresses, noting that the imprisonment of the opposition leaders and the Georgian Dream’s pledge to ban the opposition parties and associated individuals constitute “a direct attack against democratic pluralism.”
Regarding foreign and security policy, the Commission says Georgia’s CFSP alignment “remains low,” warning about the re-export of high-priority goods and a significant rise in flights to Russia. “Georgia should step up cooperation efforts to prevent that its territory and/or legal entities registered in Georgia are used to circumvent EU restrictive measures,” the report says.
The elections also drew criticism in the report. The October 2024 parliamentary and October 2025 local polls, according to the report, were marked by high polarization, “intimidation, coercion, and pressure on voters,” undermining free choice. The report reiterates outstanding OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission recommendations.
Judicial changes “severely undermined the independence and integrity of the judiciary,” the Commission adds, exacerbating risks of “judicial capture.”
More to follow…