MIL-OSI Europe: MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the further deterioration of the political situation in Georgia – B10-0108/2025

B10‑0108/2025

European Parliament resolution on the further deterioration of the political situation in Georgia

(2025/2522(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Georgia, in particular that of 28 November 2024 on Georgia’s worsening democratic crisis following the recent parliamentary elections and alleged electoral fraud[1],

– having regard to Georgia’s status as an EU candidate country, granted by the European Council at its summit of 14 and 15 December 2023,

– having regard to Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution, which demands the implementation of all possible measures to guarantee Georgia’s complete integration into the EU and NATO,

– having regard to the final report of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on the parliamentary elections held in Georgia on 26 October 2024,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas Article 2 of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement[2] concerns the general principles of the agreement, which include democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms;

B. whereas the parliamentary elections of 26 October 2024 in Georgia were deeply flawed and marked by grave irregularities; whereas these elections violated the democratic norms and standards set for free and fair elections, failing to reflect the will of the people and rendering the resulting ‘Parliament’, and subsequently the ‘President’, devoid of any democratic legitimacy;

C. whereas the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, publicly condemned the elections as rigged, declared that she would not recognise them and called for an international investigation;

D. whereas Georgia has officially held the status of EU candidate country since December 2023; whereas on 28 November 2024, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would delay initiating accession talks with the EU until the end of 2028;

E. whereas on 28 November 2024, peaceful mass anti-government protests began across the country, demanding new, free and fair elections, an end to political violence and repression, and the return of the country to its European path; whereas the protests have been taking place without interruption for over 75 days;

F. whereas on 14 December 2024, the de facto parliament held a ‘presidential election’ with a single candidate from the Georgian Dream party, elected with 224 out of 225 votes cast; whereas the absence of alternative candidates in this process eliminated political competition and has been widely criticised for undermining democratic principles and failing to provide the electorate with a genuine choice;

G. whereas Georgia’s self-appointed authorities have plunged the country into a fully fledged constitutional and political crisis, as well as a human rights and democracy crisis; whereas this has been marked by the brutal repression of peaceful protesters, with judges, prosecutors and police officers actively fabricating politically motivated administrative and criminal charges against protesters, journalists and opposition figures detained during peaceful anti-government demonstrations; whereas, as of December 2024, more than 460 people have been arrested or punished since the protests began, with this number growing by the day;

H. whereas reports indicate the widespread use of excessive force, torture and degrading treatment by law enforcement officials against peaceful protesters, causing significant physical and psychological harm, as documented by international human rights organisations and local non-governmental organisations;

I. whereas independent media, including TV Formula, TV Mtavari and TV Pirveli, face systematic harassment and intimidation; whereas numerous violent attacks on journalists have been documented, including the severe beatings of Aleksandre Keshelashvili, Maka Chikhladze and Giorgi Shetsiruli, and the harassment of detained journalist Saba Kevkhishvili; whereas on 12 January 2025, the Georgian authorities arrested journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, who has been in pre-trial detention since then and is on hunger strike in solidarity with all political prisoners in Georgia; whereas she faces between four to seven years in prison;

J. whereas the Constitutional Court of Georgia, along with other judicial bodies, is under the control of the ruling Georgian Dream party and has issued politically motivated decisions that legitimise the regime’s actions, undermine democracy and justify human rights violations, contributing to the erosion of the rule of law;

K. whereas the de facto Georgian authorities have used disproportionate force and excessive violence against peaceful protesters and resorted to arbitrary mass arrests to thwart dissent; whereas independent human rights organisations have reported the systemic mistreatment of detainees, including torture; whereas to date, not a single law enforcement official involved in the brutal crackdowns, arbitrary arrests and mistreatment has been brought to justice;

L. whereas the self-appointed authorities introduced new draconian legislation that came into force on 30 December 2024, imposing further arbitrary restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, introducing, among other things, hefty fines for putting up protest slogans and posters, and granting police the power to detain individuals ‘preventively’ for 48 hours on suspicion of planning to violate the rules governing public assembly; whereas on 3 February 2025, the Georgian Dream party unveiled further draft legislation designed to tighten control, ramping up penalties for a variety of offences directly targeting protestors, critics and political dissent, such as harsher punishments for ‘insulting officials’ and an increase in the duration of administrative detention from 15 to 60 days;

M. whereas on 29 January 2025, Georgian Dream announced that it would withdraw its delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe after the latter demanded new parliamentary elections, the release of political prisoners and accountability for perpetrators of violence;

N. whereas on 5 February 2025, the self-appointed ‘Parliament’ voted to approve the early termination of the mandates of 49 out of 61 members of parliament who did not take their seats following last year’s election;

1. Refrains from recognising the self-proclaimed authorities of the Georgian Dream party as a legitimate government of Georgia following the rigged election of 26 October 2024, which was held in total violation of democratic norms and standards, and did not reflect the will of the people of Georgia; calls on the international community to join the boycott of the self-proclaimed Georgian authorities; encourages the EU Member States to only engage with Georgian Dream in order to demand new democratic parliamentary elections;

2. Recognises President Salome Zourabichvili as the only legitimate representative of the Georgian state; praises her efforts to peacefully steer the country back towards a democratic and European path of development;

3. Demands that new elections take place in Georgia within the next few months in an improved electoral environment, overseen by an independent and impartial election administration and monitored through diligent international observation to guarantee a genuinely fair, free and transparent process; encourages the Member States and EU officials to firmly demand new elections and to make any future engagement explicitly conditional on setting a new date for parliamentary elections and establishing a mechanism to ensure they are free and fair;

4. Reiterates its call on the Council and the Member States to impose immediate and targeted personal sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili and to freeze all his assets within the EU for his role in the deterioration of the political process in Georgia, enabling democratic backsliding and acting against the country’s constitutionally declared interests of Euro-Atlantic integration; recalls that the US has already imposed sanctions on him; calls on the French Government to strip Bidzina Ivanishvili of the Legion of Honour and impose individual sanctions on him;

5. Welcomes the Council’s decision to suspend visa-free travel for Georgian diplomats and officials, but considers it as only a first step, which must be followed by harsher penalties; encourages the Member States to rigorously enforce the suspension of visa-free travel by cross-checking the individual national identification numbers of the diplomats and officials against their documents to prevent circumvention of the suspension;

6. Calls for the EU and its Member States to impose personal sanctions on the officials and political leaders in Georgia responsible for democratic backsliding, electoral fraud, human rights violations and the persecution of political opponents and activists, such as Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party Kakha Kaladze, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, and Chair of the Georgian Dream party Irakli Garibashvili, and to extend these sanctions to judges, including those of the Constitutional Court of Georgia who are passing politically motivated sentences, and representatives of the law enforcement services;

7. Strongly condemns the brutal violence and repression used by Georgia’s ruling regime against peaceful protesters since 28 November 2024; demands the release of journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, who has been on hunger strike for over four weeks now because of her unjust detention and risks facing critical, irreversible and life-threatening consequences; denounces the assault and beating of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, resulting in his hospitalisation, followed by the arrest of political leaders including Elene Khoshtaria, Nika Melia and Gigi Ugulava, as a shocking escalation of state-orchestrated violence by Georgian Dream and its allies against peaceful demonstrators; demands the annulment of recently adopted repressive legislation by the self-declared ‘Parliament’, restraining freedom of assembly and suppressing peaceful dissent;

8. Urges the Georgian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and to ensure prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of unlawful and disproportionate use of force by the law enforcement agencies; considers that the Georgian justice system has been weaponised to stifle dissent, instil fear and silence free speech;

9. Calls for the Georgian authorities to take immediate action to ensure the safety and freedom of journalists and to investigate all instances of violence and misconduct by law enforcement agencies; emphasises the importance of fostering a democratic environment where media, civil society and the opposition can operate freely without fear of retaliation or censorship;

10. Demands an independent, transparent and impartial investigation into police brutality and the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators; calls for those responsible for human rights violations, including law enforcement and government officials ordering acts of repression, to be held fully accountable before the law;

11. Denounces the launch of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office on 8 February 2025 into non-governmental organisations accused of aggravated sabotage, attempted sabotage and assisting foreign and foreign-controlled organisations in hostile activities aimed at undermining the state interests of Georgia, for which they could receive multiple-year sentences; views this action as further escalation of repression by the regime, misuse of the judicial system and accelerated democratic backsliding;

12. Denounces the termination of the mandates of 49 members of parliament as a sign of further democratic backsliding;

13. Notes that Georgia, once a front runner for Euro-Atlantic integration, is undergoing an accelerated process of democratic backsliding, which could result in the country taking the Belarussian path of political development, transitioning from the current authoritarian state to a dictatorial regime;

14. Deplores the decision of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to suspend accession talks and reject EU funding until the end of 2028; recalls that all polls consistently show the overwhelming support of the Georgian population for a Euro-Atlantic future; expresses strong support for the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Georgian people, who continue to demonstrate daily in defence of their human rights, constitution and democracy; stands in solidarity with the Georgian nation and calls for the Commission, the Member States and the EU institutions to support Georgian civil society representatives in their struggle for a democratic and European future;

15. Calls on the Commission to review the EU-Georgia Association Agreement in the light of the self-declared Georgian authorities’ breach of the general principles, as laid down in Article 2; maintains, furthermore, that non-compliance with the general principles should result in the conditional suspension of economic cooperation and privileges afforded by the Agreement;

16. Condemns the climate of intimidation and polarisation fuelled by statements by Georgian Government representatives and political leaders, as well as by attacks against political pluralism, including through repeated threats to ban opposition parties, to arrest their leaders and even ordinary supporters, and to silence dissent;

17. Calls for the EU and its Member States to cease all high-level contacts with the institutions of Georgia’s illegitimate government, such as the EU-Georgia Association Council, until free and fair elections take place; recalls that such meetings can be abused to create a false impression of ‘business as usual’ and legitimisation from the EU;

18. Welcomes the Commission’s decision to cease all budgetary support to the Georgian authorities and to suspend the initiation of any future investment projects; encourages the Commission to terminate all financial support for ongoing projects; calls for a moratorium on all investment projects in the field of connectivity;

19. Calls on the Commission to use the frozen EUR 120 million originally intended as support for the Georgian authorities to enhance the EU’s support for Georgia’s civil society, in particular the non-governmental sector and independent media, which are increasingly coming under undue pressure from the ruling political party and the authorities, as well as to support programmes supporting democratic resilience and electoral integrity; calls for the EU’s funding mechanisms to be adjusted to take into account the needs that arise in a more hostile and anti-democratic environment; highlights the urgency of the need to support civil society in the light of growing repression and the suspension of activities of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and therefore urges the Commission to ramp up support without delay;

20. Expresses deep concern about the increasing Russian influence in the country and about the Georgian Dream government’s actions in pursuing a policy of rapprochement and collaboration with Russia, in spite of its creeping occupation of Georgian territory;

21. Strongly reiterates its urgent demand for the immediate release of former President Mikheil Saakashvili on humanitarian grounds; emphasises that the Georgian Government bears full and undeniable responsibility for the life, health, safety and well-being of former President Mikheil Saakashvili and must be held fully accountable for any harm that befalls him;

22. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the self-appointed authorities of Georgia.