The Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili held a meeting with the Opposition MPs to discuss the recommendation of the European Commission envisaging the amendment to the Election Code.
“We need to envision this process from the EU perspective. Today, we are in a new process envisaging the fulfillment of the recommendations of the European Council, and if we want Georgia to receive the candidate status, then we shall chase the goal to meet these recommendations. These recommendations enshrine the analysis of the OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission opinions and consideration of any aspect left in the Election Code,” the Speaker stated.
As he noted, the Government has its position concerning the electoral threshold and no decision-making is planned this year in this regard. There are two issues to be dissociated – the EU recommendations and their fulfillment, while other issues, including the threshold, shall be discussed in another format.
“As to the threshold, it is a standalone issue with nothing to do with 12 recommendations as is unanimously agreed, including today, when we met the Ambassadors of the EU member states and the answer is clear in this regard that it is not perceived from the EU perspective to need resolving now but is quite another issue and, thus, as I already mentioned to my colleagues, we shall reconcile on our ultimate goal, which at this moment is to receive the EU candidate status. As to other goals and interests, there may exist plenty. We may expose our interest in the threshold, for instance, Girchi has its positions concerning the National Bank and there are other issues as well but it would not be fair to our population and our European future to include other interests and goals in the cart called the progress on the EU integration path. We shall dissociate two issues – EU recommendations and their fulfillment and it is a strict plan. As to other issues, we need to agree that these are other issues, standalone from the EU and shall be discussed in another format. We have all expressed our position concerning the threshold and do not intend to make a new decision in this regard this year,” he added.
The meeting was attended by the Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, Anri Okhanashvili and the member of the Sports and Youth Issues Committee assigned for the youth direction, Givi Mikanadze.
