Irakli Kobakhidze: Abolishing the “Foreign Influence Transparency” law will not work – this law had a specific result, and that is that foreign agency has been almost completely neutralized

“They want us to abolish this law [the ‘Foreign Influence Transparency’ law] in a crude manner; that will not work,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responds in this way to the statement by EU Ambassador Pavel Herczyński that “if Georgia wants to become a member of the European Union, Georgia must adopt laws that are European – not American, Russian, Chinese, or any other.”

As Irakli Kobakhidze noted, precisely transparency is a European standard.

“You see that similar laws are being adopted in a number of European countries. The matter concerns the fact that organizations funded by foreign governments must submit declarations once a year to a specific agency. Nothing more than that is required. Here too they cannot enter into any discussion. They simply want us, in a crude manner, to abolish this law. That will not work. This law had a specific effect, a result, and the result is that foreign agency in our country has been almost completely neutralized. They do not like that; they do not like the neutralization of foreign agency,” Irakli Kobakhidze stated.