I very much hope that Georgia will become a part of our composition, and accordingly, preparations for this are underway, European Union Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski said during his speech at the conference "Resocialization-Rehabilitation of Convicts and Probationers".
As the diplomat noted, the EU mission in Georgia started in 2004, and over the years, approximately 60 million euros have been allocated to Georgia.
"Today's conference is a fantastic opportunity to shed light on the progress that has been made in the field of criminal justice in Georgia. It's great for me to see the representation of the European Union, there's a lot of countries coming to our conference and it's great for me because it's a fantastic opportunity to share information and talk about opportunities. Many reforms have been implemented in Georgia. In the following years, these efforts should continue to be strengthened in order to create an appropriate structure, an appropriate legal framework in Georgia for the strengthening of the European perspective, and I very much hope that Georgia will become part of our composition, and accordingly, preparations are underway for this.
As for the Delegation of the European Union in Georgia, we are observing what reforms have been carried out in the last 20 years in the direction of execution of sentences in Georgia. Our mission started in 2004, the foundation was laid, and over the years about 60 million euros have been allocated for Georgia, as well as 25 million euros - this refers to technical assistance in the direction of civil society. This is financial and technical assistance. A very large share of this aid is precisely related to the development and strengthening of the probation and penal systems. During this time, in the course of this partnership, Georgia has repeatedly shown progress, repeatedly shown the desire of how important progress is for Georgia, the improvement of the justice system, as well as the improvement of the probation system, how important it is to have social services both in probation and in penal institutions. This is the foundation, this is the key practice in the direction of resocialization, rehabilitation and serving the sentence in decent conditions," said Herczynski.
At the same time, he thanked those who, according to him, laid the foundation for this effort and who are working to maintain the progress.
"This is our joint effort, among which a very large share of this effort is precisely in the direction of probation, the contribution of various organizations is also important. We must continue to work in this direction, the drive must not be stopped to overcome the existing, remaining challenges and problems together, to reduce the rate of imprisonment in Georgia to share more practice of using non-custodial punishments, because is among the five countries with the highest rate of imprisonment as punishment. Therefore, I hope that the probation system will continue to develop in order to fully implement EU standards. Representation of the European Union will continue to find assistance to Georgia in the development of the penitentiary system. With joint efforts, we will create a harmonized system and, accordingly, a healthy and successful society," said Pawel Herczynski.
*The quotes in the article have been double-translated from Georgian and wordings may be inaccurate.
