Int’l community criticises ruling party’s withdrawal from EU-mediated agreement

The ruling Georgian Dream party left the EU-mediated agreement yesterday. Photo: Georgian Dream press office. 

Agenda.ge, 29 Jul 2021 - 15:47, Tbilisi,Georgia

The international community has criticised the ruling Georgian Dream party’s exit from the EU-mediated agreement which put an end to a six-month political standoff caused by parliamentary elections of 2020. 

Seven US senators have published a joint statement on the breakdown of the Georgian EU-mediated agreement which says that ‘recent developments in Georgia undermine the reform efforts agreed to in the April 19 agreement.’ 

It also underlined that the US worked closely in partnership with the EU and Georgian political parties ‘to deliver a strong, multiparty agreement that paved the way for critical judicial and electoral reforms.’

It was disappointing that not all elected parties signed the agreement or implemented the agreement in good faith,” US senators stated. 

Senators criticised the ruling party’s decision to walk away from the agreement, noting that the Georgian Dream is obliged ‘to set aside political differences and pursue an inclusive, multiparty parliamentary process that benefits all Georgians.’ 

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch, who was one of the authors of the senators’ joint statement, noted that the ruling Georgian Dream party does not take into consideration the entire country’s interests and ‘only cares about its own future.’

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price has called on all political parties to work together for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, underscoring the possible risks of returning to a political crisis in Georgia.