EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the European Union wants to support the people of Georgia rather than its government, citing the bloc’s strained relations with the Georgian authorities.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on July 13, Kallas said the EU was discussing how to maintain public confidence in the bloc despite the lack of engagement with the Georgian government.
“We have problems with Georgia – we have no relations with the government. We don’t want to support the government; we want to support the Georgian people. We are also discussing how to do this in the best possible way so that people do not lose faith in the European Union,” she said.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded the same day, accusing the “European bureaucracy” of attempting to finance a revolution in Georgia and dismissing Kallas’ comments.
“These shameful games of the European bureaucracy have no value for Georgian society,” Kobakhidze said, arguing that Brussels had suspended political dialogue with Tbilisi in 2024 and was acting according to the interests of “external forces.”
Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili also criticized Kallas’ remarks, saying it was regrettable that the EU’s top diplomat refused to engage with what she described as Georgia’s democratically elected government while claiming to support the Georgian people.
The exchange comes days after the European Commission’s report on the implementation of its Black Sea strategy stated that Georgia’s democratic backsliding has significantly affected EU-Georgia cooperation, noting that the country’s role in the strategy will largely depend on the authorities taking tangible steps to reverse the current situation.
