Chairs of Parliamentary Committees on Foreign Affairs call on Georgia’s ruling party to withdraw the draft law on foreign agents

Press release, 5 April 2024 

Today, the Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees of European parliaments expressed their deep concern about the content of the draft Law on Transparency of Foreign Influences, which has been reintroduced for consideration at the Georgian Parliament by Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party. The Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees called on Georgia to withdraw the draft law from parliamentary deliberations. The draft, aimed at limiting the activities of foreign-funded NGOs, announced for consideration by the leader of the ruling party of the Georgian Parliament on 3 April 2024, is essentially a carbon copy of the Russian Law on Foreign Agents.

The statement by the Foreign Affairs Committees recalls that under immense pressure and overwhelming mobilization of the Georgian people, who took to protest in the streets, the ruling party in May 2023 has promised “to unconditionally withdraw” such Putin-style legislation from the parliamentary deliberations. Reintroduction of the draft law endangers Georgia’s vibrant pro-European civil society and undermines the country’s hard-won European perspective and candidate status. 

‘Several months ago, the whole European Union has shown great confidence in the Georgian nation by offering Georgia the status of a candidate country for EU membership. However, Georgia’s Dream is repeatedly trying to undermine the trust put with Georgia by breaking its own promise to never again submit the Russian Law on Foreign Agents for consideration at the Georgian Parliament. Both the Georgian Dream and the Georgian people need to make a critical decision: to align themselves either with the Russian or with the Western world,’ said Žygimantas Pavilionis, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Please find full text of the statement HERE.

Office of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs 

E-mail: [email protected]