Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation to Georgia, Julien Crampes and Foreign Service Officer of the US Embassy Evan Elliott met with the parliamentary political groups “Girchi” and “Reforms Group” to discuss the implementation of the EC’s 12-point plan proposed for Georgia.
“We had inquiries regarding the EU’s position, as well as Georgia’s EU integration process. We discussed all the recent developments in the country. We introduced the views of our political group on specific challenges and dwelt upon the implementation process of EC’s recommendations,” Aleksandre Rakviashvili from Girchi stated.
“The guests were curious as to why we aren’t a part of the main process, why there is a parallel process, and how we envision these processes coming together and uniting at the committee hearings, where legislative documents developed with specific initiatives from the working groups of Georgian Dream as well as those developed by the opposition will be presented. Our partners have a vested interest in the country receiving the status and in fulfilling all 12 conditions to the greatest extent possible. They will keep an eye on this process and make an effort to support everyone involved,” Khatuna Samnidze, Chair of the Reforms Group stated.
As Crampes pointed out, it is essential to involve the government team, opposition parties, and civil society in implementing the 12-point plan.
“We had several meetings with the ruling party representatives and with the representatives of the opposition parties over the last two weeks. We have been discussing the reform process in the Parliament and, in particular, efforts done on the reform of judiciary, the reform of the election code and other aspects related to the 12 priorities that were put forward by the European Commission and endorsed by the European Council back in June. In terms of process we encourage inclusivity, work in parliament, the involvement of the opposition parties and the civil society. In terms of content we have been referring to the Association Agenda that has been agreed between the EU and Georgia, formally so two days ago; in this document we have a number of key priorities. And we have also been referring to past recommendations of OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission in the field of the Judiciary and electoral reform, which are equally important to us. We have also referred to offers from these two institutions, the OSCE/ ODIHR and the Venice Commission, to provide further support to Georgia including to review the draft legislation and we have encouraged everyone to seize this opportunity. The work on reforms is very important in the context of the 12 priorities so the EU delegation will remain engaged and keep meeting all interlocutors,” Julien Crampes told journalists after the meeting.
