"The EU’s centralized structure sometimes imposes conditions that even the Union itself cannot agree upon – one such example was the vetting system demanded of Georgia, which contradicts a core principle of democracy," – said the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, during his speech at the conference of the heads of parliaments of EU member and partner countries in Budapest.

He explained that the vetting system requested by the EU contradicts the democratic principle that power originates from the people.

"The EU’s centralized structure sometimes sets conditions that the EU itself would not agree to. One example of this practice was the demand placed on Georgia to establish an extraordinary system for assessing judges' integrity – known as the 'vetting' system – which was to be implemented by foreign actors.

If implemented, such a system would contradict the core principle of democracy, which holds that power derives from the people. It would mean that an entire branch of government could be formed by foreign actors, which goes against the essence of national sovereignty. I doubt that any EU member state would allow such interference in its own sovereignty," said Shalva Papuashvili.

The translation of Papuashvili’s speech was released by the press office of the Georgian Dream party.