Georgian NGOs demand from authorities to publicly answer EU questions

In Georgia, NGOs demand from the government to make public the completed questionnaire received from the European Union (EU) for becoming a candidate country.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 11, in Luxembourg, Georgia received a questionnaire to be filled in for obtaining the status of a candidate country for EU membership, which takes one month to complete. The final decision on granting Georgia the candidate status will be made in June at a sitting of the European Council.

A total of 17 Georgian NGOs have asked the Premier, Irakli Garibashvili; Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy; and Carl Harzel, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, to make public the questions and answers to the EU Candidate Questionnaire. Besides, the NGOs expressed their desire to be involved in the process of preparing answers to the questionnaire.

"We, the undersigned NGOs, believe that the accession process to the EU should be open, transparent and inclusive. It's important that the civil society be included therein. We emphasize that the civil society has valuable experience in assessing the current situation in Georgia in the areas of justice, fight against corruption and human rights," says the joint statement of the NGOs, received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on April 12.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 14, 2022 at 05:29 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.