BRUSSELS, April 17 () –
The European Union warned Georgia this Wednesday that the law on foreign agents “compromises its European path” and has asked it to refrain from adopting it, after being approved in first reading by the Georgian Parliament.
In a statement, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, regret the step of the Georgian Parliament “despite repeated calls from the EU to retract the legislation” , which has also generated important demonstrations.
In this sense, it warns that final approval “would have a negative impact on Georgia's progress on its path towards the EU” since the legislation “does not comply with the fundamental norms and values of the EU.”
For all these reasons, it urges Georgia to “refrain from adopting legislation that could compromise Georgia's path towards the EU”, insisting that the community path is the path supported by the “immense majority” of Georgian citizens.
According to the bloc, the proposed foreign agents law would limit the ability of civil society and media organizations to operate freely and could be applied to limit freedom of expression and “unfairly stigmatize” organizations.
The law will require all organizations, media outlets and similar entities that receive at least 20 percent of their financing from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.” The law is criticized for considering that it will undermine freedom of expression and the fundamental rights of the Georgian population, with its detractors stating that it is assimilated to current laws in Russia.
Precisely, the former Russian president and current vice president of the country's Security Council, Dimitri Medvedev, supported the controversial law this Wednesday, ensuring that the social protests against it are driven by the United States.
