EU may freeze Georgia's accession bid over foreign agent law - FT
Photo: Georgia's EU accession bid the may be frozen (Getty Images)
The European Union may freeze Georgia's membership bid if it adopts a law on foreign agents, according to the Financial Times.
The Georgian parliament, with a majority of the Georgian Dream party, has passed a controversial law on foreign agents despite months of demonstrations and repeated warnings from Brussels.
According to anonymous officials who spoke to the FT, the EU's decision to start accession talks is likely to be indefinitely postponed if the law comes into force.
“We have been very clear . . . this is a showstopper. The Georgian government knows what the score is,” an anonymous source said.
Brussels has already made it clear that if the law comes into force, the European Commission will not make a recommendation for EU governments to greenlight to start membership negotiations.
A controversial law in Georgia
Last month, the Georgian government again raised the issue of signing the law on foreign agents, which is already in force in the Russian Federation.
After the bill was adopted in the first reading, protesters who disagreed with these innovations, began protests, like they did last fall. However, while it helped to postpone the vote on the bill then, this time the parliament passed the bill on foreign agents in the second and third readings.
Read more about why the Georgian authorities took this step and how it could turn out for Georgia in the material by RBC-Ukraine.
