Our position is clear, Georgia has a place in Europe, but not the Georgian Dream, - MEP Tobias Cremer said during the discussion of the report on Georgia in the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He thanked MEP Rasa Juknevičienė for presenting the report.

“Thank you, Rasa, for this very good report in a very difficult time. I think you said very clearly that when we are looking for a definition of “democratic regression”, we no longer need a dictionary, we just need to go to Tbilisi.

The Georgian Dream is doing everything it can to undermine the European aspirations of its people. They are moving towards Russia, making themselves dependent on Putin. I think this is a very short-sighted strategy for them geopolitically, but it is a terrible strategy for their people, who now have less freedom and cannot protest freely.

The Georgian Dream is using chemical weapons from the First World War against its own people in demonstrations. This is completely unacceptable if the BBC report is confirmed, but the evidence suggests that it is true.

So, at this stage, I think the European Commission report is absolutely right when it says that this is probably the worst report for a candidate country that we have ever had.

I think it is very important that the European Parliament takes a very clear position and says that Georgian Dream has to decide where they want to go. Do they want to move towards Europe? In that case they have to act and change. Do they want to be part of Russia’s orbit? In that case they have to give up any ambitions and be honest with the population, because they continue to lie to the population and to others, and I want Georgian Dream to be really honest.

The only thing that still gives us hope for Georgia is the Georgian people. The courage of people like Mzia Amaglobeli, to whom we awarded the Sakharov Prize for a very good reason. There are also people we see who are still taking to the streets despite the threats.

So we will continue to bring forward amendments to see how we can impose sanctions on the Georgian Dream government without harming the Georgian people. But our position is clear: Georgia has a place in Europe, but not the Georgian Dream," Cremer said.