Germany’s foreign minister said on Thursday that the European Union must consider formally suspending Georgia’s accession process due to the Russia-friendly ruling party’s hostile approach to the bloc and the country’s democratic backsliding.
“With its anti-European turn, the Georgian Dream party has deliberately put Georgia’s EU accession process on ice and effectively suspended it,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.
“In the EU, we should now also discuss a formal suspension of Georgia’s accession process due to the increasingly authoritarian policies of the Georgian Dream.”
Baerbock said that the granting of EU candidate status in December 2023 was “linked to clear promises of reform.”
“But instead of progress, we are seeing alarming regression,” she continued, pointing to the brutal crackdowns on peaceful pro-European demonstrators that have been taking place in the capital Tbilisi and other locations for weeks.
Germany suspends millions in support
The Georgian Dream party is also severely endangering Georgia’s decades-long partnership with Germany, Baerbock said.
As a consequence of the recent events, the German Foreign Office is scaling down cooperation with the country and suspending support projects worth more than €200 million ($208 million).
Germany is also discussing further measures with its EU partners – according to Baerbock, these range “from the withdrawal of visa-free travel for Georgian decision-makers to targeted sanctions.”
Deepening crisis
The pro-Western opposition is questioning the declared victory of the Georgian Dream party in the parliamentary election that took place at the end of October and are angry over its decision to effectively halt the country’s EU accession talks.
Demonstrations have repeatedly been violently broken up, activists have been detained, and opposition politicians and media representatives attacked.
Several countries have already imposed sanctions against the leadership of Georgia, which was long considered a close ally of the European Union and NATO.
