TBILISI, July 15. /TASS/. The foreign agent law that Georgia’s parliament passed in May will take effect in a few weeks, Givi Mikanadze, head of the parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Youth Affairs, said.

"I would like to point out that the law has not entered into force yet. The law will take effect in about a few weeks, so we’ll see how things go," he noted at a briefing.

In June, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, who signed the law instead of the country’s president, said that the Justice Ministry had 60 days to prepare the necessary regulations and launch a website for organizations to register on. Once that is done, all non-government organizations and media outlets falling under the law will be obliged to register in the list of foreign agents and publish their 2023 financial statements.

The law applies to non-governmental organizations and media outlets that receive over 20% of their funding from abroad. They will be required to submit income and expense statements to the Justice Ministry every January. Failure to do so will carry a fine of 25,000 Georgian lari (over $9,100). If documents aren’t submitted after the fine, 20,000 lari (more than $7,300) will be charged for each month of delay.