Calls upon the European Council and the European Parliament to impose sanctions were included into the European Parliament’s Annual Report on Implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia debated earlier today at the Parliament’s plenary in Strasbourg.
The call for sanctions was first made in June, when the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on Safety of Journalists in Georgia, following the arrest of Mtavari TV’s CEO Nika Gvaramia.
“[The European Parliament]Underlines the need to eliminate the excessive influence of vested interests in economic, political and public life as one of the priorities identified by the Commission to be addressed before Georgia is granted candidate status; recommends addressing the excessive influence of vested interests, notably of former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, in a systemic way through structural and regulatory reforms in various areas of the country’s political, economic and public life; reiterates its call on the Council and democratic partners to take appropriate measures, including imposing personal sanctions on Ivanishvili and all those individuals enabling and responsible for the deterioration of the democratic political process,” says the final text approved by Parliament.
Another amendment speaks about the need of imposing sanctions in the context of Georgia’s “ambiguous position” on Ukraine and the Kremlin links of Mr Ivanishvili’s family.
“Is concerned by reports that Russian people and entities are allegedly using Georgia to bypass Western sanctions; calls for the EU institutions to further examine these allegations, in particular various reports, including one by the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ties to Russia; should these allegations be confirmed, calls for personal sanctions to be introduced against him and his closest associates; recalls that members of Ivanishvili’s family and his close associates have been sanctioned by Ukraine for their links to the Kremlin, which are behind the ambiguous position of the current Government of Georgia towards Russia; welcomes, in this regard, the adoption of the eighth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes a new listing criterion which will allow the EU to sanction persons who facilitate infringements of the prohibition against the circumvention of sanctions,” the text reads.
Despite being critical and mentioning Mr Ivanishvili by name, the document’s initial version adopted by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in November did not include a call to sanction him.
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