BRUSSELS, May 15. /TASS/. The European Union may freeze Georgia’s accession application if the foreign agents law is passed in that country, the Financial Times said, citing European officials.
According to them, Brussels’ decision on launching accession talks with Tbilisi will most likely be postponed indefinitely if the foreign agents law in Georgia comes into effect.
Earlier, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and the European Commission in a joint statement urged Georgia to abandon the bill cautioning that it may negatively impact its ambitions on joining the union.
On May 14, Georgia’s parliament approved the foreign agents bill in the third and final reading at a plenary session. According to the procedure, the bill will be submitted to President Salome Zourabichvili to sign. She has already vowed to veto it. Then Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia will have to launch a procedure on overcoming veto.
Foreign agents bill
On May 1, Georgia’s parliament passed the second reading of the bill "On the Transparency of Foreign Influence," which had been opposed by Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats, who see it as an obstacle to Georgia’s integration into the European Union. Opposition members and civil activists have been holding protest rallies in front of the parliament building in the country’s capital of Tbilisi since April 15.
In early April, the ruling Georgian Dream party announced its decision to reintroduce the bill a year after the initiative was quashed following mass protests. The bill is almost identical to last year’s, with one exception: the term "agent of foreign influence" has been replaced with "organization pursuing foreign interests." The initiative keeps causing protests in Tbilisi, which escalate into clashes with law enforcement officers.