TBILISI, May 5. /TASS/. The European Parliament is seeking to use Georgia as a weapon against Russia, Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs earlier approved a report on Georgia drafted by EP member for Lithuania Rasa Jukneviciene that says that the European Parliament is concerned over the situation with democracy, the supremacy of law, and European integration in Georgia.

"They (the European Parliament - TASS) are not interested in anything that is linked with the Georgian people. They take no interest in either Georgian journalism or people’s wellbeing. They take interest in nothing. The only thing Jukneviciene and the like with their hair-brained ideas are interested in is to use Georgia as a weapon against Russia. They view us as a mere weapon against Russia. They don’t see how else they can use us. Their plan is to use us as a weapon against Russia," he told reporters.

He slammed the European Parliament as a fan club of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

After the Georgian parliament passed a law on the transparency of foreign influence in May 2024, the country’s relations with the European Union and the United States began worsening. The European Union repeatedly called on Georgia to revoke this law but the leaders of the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party have been insisting that the law is meant to ensure the transparency of sources of financing of non-governmental organizations operating in the country, with some of them trying to instigate a revolution in the country.

The Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party won the presidential elections on October 26, 2024, taking 89 seats in the 150-seat parliament. In late November 2024, the party made a decision to suspend until 2028 any discussions with the European Union of the issue of the country’s potential EU membership bid and refuse from all budget grants from the European Union.