Shalva Papuashvili: Robert Schuman is probably rolling over in his grave when he sees what is happening to the EU in the hands of the current political elite in Brussels – we see a certain move of Brussels towards the Soviet Union

Can you imagine Maka Botchorishvili going to Estonia and taking part in an opposition rally there?! They would say that European values contradict this. If they themselves do this, why is this a normal moment? - said the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili.

As he noted, unfortunately, "they see a certain move towards the Soviet Union in the hands of the current leadership in Brussels."

"They were directly involved in the elections, the foreign ministers of the Baltic countries stood at the rally of the radical opposition, and today that prime minister, I mean Estonia, is the EU's high representative for foreign affairs. Robert Schuman is probably rolling over in his grave when he sees what is happening to the EU in the hands of the current political elite in Brussels. Unfortunately, we see a certain move towards the Soviet Union in the hands of the current leadership in Brussels. Among the current leadership and among its members, by the way, many are members of the former Soviet republic or the socialist camp. Despite the fact that they are trying in every way to distance themselves from their Soviet past and throw it out of their own history, I mean the Baltic countries, it seems that some of the political elite have taken some skills from the Soviet Union. We see direct interference in the Georgian elections. Can you imagine Maka Botchorishvili going to Estonia and taking part in an opposition rally there?! They would say that European values contradict this. If they themselves do this, why is this a normal moment? Can you imagine what would happen?," Papuashvili said on Imedi TV.

Papuashvili also spoke about the European Commission's letter.

He said the EU had "violated international law and violated "an international agreement signed with Georgia in 2010, which is "shameful."

"We learned two things from this letter: we learned that the introduction of a visa requirement for diplomatic and service passports was a violation of the 2010 agreement by the EU, and the fact is that the EU has violated international law and violated an international agreement signed with Georgia, which is, of course, a shame," he added.

He said the letter sent from Brussels is a direct admission that a politically motivated decision was made, not a legally justified one.

"In particular, this letter states that in January 2025, after they expressed their own comments regarding general visa liberalization and there was no adequate response to these comments, they suspended the 2010 agreement, which is not related to each other, that is, this is general visa liberalization for all citizens and this is for a specific category, diplomatic passports. The second issue is what the European Union wants Georgia to work on. Here are the points that are being worked on periodically, and the Parliament adopted relevant legislative amendments in this regard within the framework of the spring convocation. For example, the issue of migration; you know that we adopted legislation to restrict illegal migration, to restrict the issues of illegal asylum requests, this is an important moment and is related to visa liberalization. We tightened the possibilities of deportation, among others, and by the way, some of the opposition were against this. As for the fight against organized crime, you can see it in this regard, including the new drug policy. We can also see it in terms of issues related to corruption. That is, there are technical issues here, which are part of the legislative policy and which are directly related to visa liberalization, work is underway on this and we have also submitted reports on this to the European Union. However, we have discovered issues that have nothing to do with visa liberalization. Look at which countries the European Union has visa-free travel with, that is, which countries' citizens can enter the European Union from different continents without a visa, and compare it with Georgia, whether it is freedom of expression, freedom of assembly or the exercise of any other rights. Of course, when we read the issue added to the first two paragraphs, which concerns, among other things, the repeal of the Law on Family Values and the Law on Transparency, the fact is that this is a common excuse to implement their own political agenda in Georgia and use visa liberalization as a weapon for this. The question is how much this is connected to visa liberalization. They may not like something, but if they limit the import of wine into the EU market because of this, it would be a politically motivated decision in order to implement some punitive measures. Therefore, these are topics that are absolutely artificially related to this issue," said Shalva Papuashvili