Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday claimed the chance of the European Union suspending the membership candidate status for Georgia was “zero for many reasons”, adding the European Commission had “directly told” the country’s Government to “pay zero attention” to members of the European Parliament who authored critical resolutions with regard to Georgia.
Papuashvili said the matter of the status was “not for the European Parliamentarians to decide”, and noted there were “big question marks regarding their trustworthiness and good faith”, after he was asked about a risk that Georgia's candidate status could be suspended.
"Members of the European Parliament and the European Parliament, in the form of a resolution, had [also] asked us to release [the imprisoned former President] Mikheil Saakashvili and stated this as a prerequisite for granting the [EU] candidate status. We saw that Saakashvili was not released, and we were [still] given the status”, he said.
"The same deputies of the European Parliament asked Georgia to impose sanctions on Russia and thus, in fact, bring Georgia into a military conflict with Russia. This was requested, and it was [presented as] a prerequisite for us to share EU sanctions in order to be granted candidate status. We saw that no sanctions were imposed, [and still] we were granted the status”, he added.
The official claimed texts of resolutions regarding Georgia were written by “lobbyists hired” by the opposition United National Movement party.
"We saw directly - we read this in the register - that drafting of texts of European Parliament resolutions was one of the activities carried out by American lobbyists. So when we see direct indications of political corruption here, there is no trust in these people”, the lawmaker said.
Papuashvili added an election for the European Parliament was scheduled for June and added “which of these lawmakers will remain in the European Parliament and which not is still a matter of question”.
