EU may abolish visa-free regime with Georgia

The EU plans to reintroduce its visa regime with Georgia if Tbilisi does not curb what the bloc and its institutions described as “backsliding of democratic principles”, Euronews writes.

The European Commission is to send a letter to the executive in Tbilisi, suspending the visa liberalisation regime in place since 2017, by Aug. 31.

“The assault on democracy by Georgian Dream (the ruling party) is growing more severe,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the final press conference following the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.

For Kallas, the EU should be consistent with its political principles and needs.

“So far we have got this position that we don’t want to hurt Georgian people. And taking away the visa-free regime, it’s really having an impact on them, but at the same time it’s also an issue of credibility of the EU,” Kallas said.

According to Georgian Dream, the ruling party, the EU seeks to influence and intimidate Georgian public opinion, given the municipal elections scheduled for next October.

Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of the Georgian Dream Party, slammed the threats of a possible suspension of Georgia’s visa-free regime.

“All of this is part of the blackmail we have been seeing in recent years, especially since (Russia’s) war broke out,” Kaladze said. “Georgia did not submit to (EU and NATO) demands, did not join the sanctions, did not allow a ‘second front’ to open in the country”.