Georgian Dream Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili denounced recent critical resolutions by the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), saying they have “ultimately crossed the red lines set by the Georgian people” and “grossly violated Georgia’s sovereignty and the principles of national independence.”
In a June 25 breifing, Papuashvili, speaking mainly on the EU Parliament resolution, railed against what he described as an “attack” on Georgia’s sovereignty, the Georgian Orthodox Church, and “the idea of Georgian statehood.”
The European Parliament resolution on Georgia, adopted on June 17, once again called for targeted sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili and other key Georgian Dream leaders, and reiterated the “non-recognition of the legitimacy” of the country’s disputed parliament and authorities, among others, while the PACE resolution, adopted on June 24, warned that conditions for holding “genuinely democratic elections” currently do not exist in Georgia. Both documents largely addressed Georgia’s democratic backsliding.
According to Papuashvili, the EU Parliament resolution “effectively disregarded” Georgia’s independence and sovereignty and “insulted” the idea of Georgian statehood, claiming that through the report prepared by Lithuanian MEP Rasa Juknevičienė, it has “stated that the right to determine the legitimacy of Georgia’s government belongs not to the Georgian people, but to the political bureaucracy in Brussels.”
“In this way, the European Parliament, in its recent report, has effectively equated itself with Russia’s occupation policy,” he said, adding, “While Russia denies Georgia’s sovereignty over one-fifth of its territory, the European Parliament refuses to recognize Georgia’s sovereignty over its entire territory.”
Papuashvili further said the resolution “does not only oppose Georgia’s democratic institutions,” but also “concerns the country’s second historical pillar – the Georgian Orthodox Church,” arguing that references to the Church in the context of Russian religious networks and influence operations constituted what he called “the first open attack” of this kind and an “insult” to the religious feelings of “millions of believers,” and set a “dangerous precedent.”
“A simultaneous attack on the sovereignty of the Georgian state and the Georgian Church is, in essence, an attack on the idea of Georgian statehood,” he said, adding that EU institutions and the governing political forces in member states “cannot wash their hands of responsibility” if they respond with “silence and support.”
He also said the resolution showed that the “EU bureaucracy must take effective steps to restore dialogue with Georgia,” calling for an end to what he claimed are “hostile rhetoric” against the Georgian people and the Church and “disinformation” against the GD government, as well as for “full recognition” of Georgia’s sovereignty and the “consistent upholding of international law.”
“It is hypocrisy,” Papuashvili said, “when, on the one hand, the European Parliament condemns the violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, while on the other hand it attempts to decide the question of the legitimacy of Georgia’s government instead of the Georgian people,” accusing it of “selective application” of international law and of “taking the world back to an era when the fate of nations was decided by metropoles rather than by the populations of those countries themselves.”
In comments with journalists, Papuashvili further claimed that the European Parliament and PACE are “no longer fundamentally different from each other,” adding that the two resolutions are “practically copied texts.”
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