Georgia faces European Parliament's criticism over rule of law and Russian influence

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Georgia faces European Parliament's criticism over rule of law and Russian influence  With 490 votes in favour and 147 against, MEPs adopted a report which “deplores the backsliding of the rule of law as well as the growing Russian influence on the ruling party, Georgian Dream."  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/10/georgia-faces-european-parliaments-criticism-over-rule-of-law-and-russian-influence  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00The European Parliament approved one of the toughest documents in the history of its enlargement.

00:10It's the Progress Report on Georgia's accession process to the bloc.

00:15With 490 votes in favour and 147 against, MEPs condemned what they call the backsliding

00:23of the rule of law and the growing Russian influence on the ruling party Georgian Dream.

00:29Euronu spoke to one of the main drafters of the report.

00:33We see rigged elections last year in the parliamentary elections and since then we've seen ever more

00:38brutal clampdowns and crackdowns on peaceful protesters.

00:42So what this report clearly shows is that the Georgian Dream government seems to be playing

00:48out the Russian playbook of disinformation, manipulation and intimidation and that is

00:54really not going towards the membership of the European Union.

00:58The parliament has repeatedly denounced what they call electoral fraud in last October's

01:03legislative elections against the opposition party composed of pro-European forces.

01:09The EU and Council of Europe have repeatedly condemned the arrest of dozens including members

01:15of the Georgian opposition, journalists and activists in recent months.

01:19A return to the EU past could only be considered if the Georgian authorities take credible steps

01:27to reverse democratic backsliding, meaning stopping the violence against citizens, releasing all those

01:34unjustly detained, suspending repressive laws and engaging in a meaningful dialogue with civil society.

01:42Nevertheless, the Georgian government claims its full commitment to the EU accession process,

01:48which was reiterated to Euronews last May.

01:50You know, there are many speculations about our accession path, but there is no real shift in our policy.

01:58We have the only policy which is the EU integration agenda that's formally adopted by the government.

02:06Growing concerns and disagreements between the EU and the Georgian government

02:10prompted the two sides to freeze the enlargement process,

02:14only a few months after Georgia received candidate status for EU membership.

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