George Zurabashvili, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, held a meeting with the heads of accredited diplomatic missions on July 23 to brief them on the “recent amendments” to the country’s Law on Grants and the “procedures for their implementation,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Zurabashvili “briefed” the diplomats on the “details of the legislative amendments” to the Law on Grants and the “procedures governing their implementation,” the ministry said, adding that the Georgian side also responded to questions regarding the “procedure for ensuring compliance” with the law’s requirements.
The ministry did not disclose any further information. Among the diplomats pictured in photos published by the Foreign Ministry were British Ambassador Gareth Ward and Dutch Ambassador Meline Arakelian.
The controversial amendments to the Grants Law, first adopted in April 2025, introduced a requirement for foreign entities to obtain government approval before disbursing funds to local organizations, with the legislation subsequently amended several times. The latest changes, adopted in April this year, exempted diplomatic and international organization missions in Georgia, as well as the Georgian Red Cross Society and financial and credit institutions, from the requirement.
The amendments stipulated that funds provided by diplomatic missions, consular offices and international organizations that are “used or may be used for activities arising from the political or public interests, approaches, or relations of a foreign government or a foreign political party” are not considered grants requiring government approval. Georgian Dream explained before the adoption that the exception would apply to funds used by such missions for their “own activities,” while the requirement to seek approval for grants aimed at other local groups would remain in place.
The exemptions followed a restrictive package adopted by the disputed parliament in March, which, among other changes, significantly broadened the definition of a foreign “grant” requiring government approval to include any monetary or in-kind support from a foreign organization or individual to local entities.
A number of local and international political and rights groups have called on Georgian Dream to repeal the Grants Law, which has dealt a major blow to civil society and media organizations that relied on foreign funding.
According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, Georgian authorities received 222 grant applications between April 2025 and June 2026, with a combined value of approximately GEL 109 million (about $41 million). “Of these, 177 applications, worth more than GEL 60 million, had been approved; 10 had been rejected; and 35, worth more than GEL 44.2 million, remained under review,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch said the government did not provide information on which projects had been approved or rejected or explain the reasons behind individual decisions. Instead, authorities said applications were assessed individually based on their alignment with “national interests,” government strategic documents, the proposed use of funds and expected results. The organization said the government did not explain how these broad criteria were applied in practice.
The international rights group said it was aware of several cases in which authorities rejected proposed foreign grants, including a UK Embassy-funded project supporting four Georgian organizations monitoring the 2025 municipal elections and a donor request to fund healthcare and harm reduction services for marginalized LGBT communities.
It also said that, from September 2025, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, a state agency later absorbed into the State Audit Office, initiated monitoring and sent information requests to around 100 organizations under the Grants Law.
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