The Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, held a meeting with the EU Ambassador and the Ambassadors of the EU Member States for deliberation on the Draft on Transparency of Foreign Influence, and the Act on Registration of Foreign Agents.
The Speaker noted that at the meeting, concerns regarding the Draft were discussed.
“We have initiated an exact copy of the American Act, yet the Law is claimed to be not American but Russian. The [social] discussion is becoming absurd. Some forces are trying to stigmatize the discussion. Despite the immense wave of said stigmatization, we have held long conversations about the importance of transparency, like yesterday’s meeting with NGOs. We have achieved an understanding that transparency concerning the actors engaged in the formation and adoption of political decisions is a request of our citizens, and the Parliament is assigned to ensure the realization of this request. We discussed these needs, and declared that we intend to submit these Drafts to the Venice Commission for its opinions. Meanwhile, we have time plenty to hold other discussions,” the Speaker stated.
He noted his hope that civil society will actively cooperate with Parliament instead of imposing stigmas and taboos, so as to enable them to eliminate the legal gaps related to insufficient transparency.
