The European Union is adopting a new mechanism for visa liberalization and the new restrictions are more severe, but let no one mislead you, the new mechanism is not directed against society or citizens, on the contrary - the new mechanism allows the European Union to adopt restrictions precisely because of human rights violations, violence, and breach of the rule of law, which apply only to those officials who are responsible for all of this, - the fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, stated at the briefing.

According to Zurabishvili, the restriction will be in effect in the first stage, which will last for one year, and if the Georgian Dream does not improve the situation, the second stage will begin, which may extend the restriction to ordinary citizens.

According to her, intensive work is needed with partners so that in the second period the aforementioned visa restrictions remain for officials and do not affect the public.

“I would like to respond to all the comments that are made on the EU’s decisions on visa liberalization.

The Georgian Dream is trying to accuse the EU of restricting us in something, of blackmailing Georgian citizens, etc.

This attempt has been going on for a long time. The Georgian Dream is trying to shift responsibility for what it is responsible for to the European Union in order to justify itself before its population, which is deeply convinced that its future is the European Union and that one of its main achievements is precisely this visa liberalization.

Therefore, we need to return to the facts. The fact is that in 2017, after great efforts, we received visa liberalization, and at the same time, the European Union established and introduced a mechanism that accompanies this visa liberalization and which required Georgia to fulfill a number of recommendations. The European Union requires these recommendations from all countries that aim to become an integrated member of the European Union, and visa liberalization is one of the steps in this direction.

After that, there was visa liberalization and no restrictions were imposed, however, despite the fact that there were many questions on migration issues and asylum applications and we did not fully fulfill the requirements set out in the visa liberalization agreement, our path and march towards the European Union continued and we reached December 2023, when we received candidate status. We received this not because the Georgian Dream implemented any of the recommendations regarding the rule of law, human rights, anti-corruption measures. None of the recommendations were implemented, but we received candidate status because the Georgian people spoke their mind in March when they resisted the Russian law, which all our partners assessed as being directly Russian law and was copied from Russia in order to limit civil society and put new pressure on it.

Despite the fact that the European Union granted us candidate status for the people and because of the people, after that and very quickly, the Georgian Dream again adopted this Russian law, which was a kind of provocation towards the European Union.

After that, for the entire year of 2024, which follows the granting of this candidate status, the Georgian Dream does not take any measures that correspond to any requirement of the European Union. On the contrary, every decision that has been made, every new law that has been adopted, directly contradicts all the recommendations that have been written down by the European Union, and as a result, we receive another warning at the end of 2024 that all this may have consequences and impact on visa liberalization.

Despite this, throughout 2025, the Georgian Dream continues to not only ignore all the measures that are to be adopted, all the recommendations that relate to the rule of law, human rights, anti-corruption, etc.

Not a day goes by without some representative of the European Union or some European leader being cursed, and this is what characterizes the entire year of 2025. At this time, the European Union is adopting a new mechanism for visa liberalization, and here we are today, with the new restrictions introduced in December being more severe, but let no one mislead you, the new mechanism is not directed against society or citizens, on the contrary - the new mechanism allows the European Union to take action precisely because of human rights violations, because of violence, because of violations of the rule of law.

If the Georgian Dream does not do anything during this period, and perhaps this is what we should expect, if nothing happenes during this one year, then the second period will begin, which has been increased to 24 months, where the restriction may be extended to all, or may continue in the same form, that is, affect the same officials and not citizens. This decision will depend on the European Union itself.

All of us who are working with foreign partners today should continue to work in the direction of their current decision, so that these restrictions do not affect citizens who are fighting to retain and maintain a chance for the European Union path, and these restrictions should apply only to those officials who are responsible for all those laws that contradict the standards and requirements of the European Union," Salome Zurabishvili said.