European Parliament 2014-2019
EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee
DSCA_PV(2017)091920
MINUTES of the 5th EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee (PAC) 19 September 2017, 15.00-18.30, and 20 September 2017, 09.30-12.00 Tbilisi, Georgia Ilia Chavchavaze Hall, 5th Floor, C Block, Parliament of Georgia
1. Opening Remarks by the Co-Chairs of the EU-Georgia PAC
Co-Chair Tamar KHULORDAVA opened the 5th Meeting of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee and emphasized the important work of the EU-Georgia PAC, in monitoring the implementation of the Association Agreement/DCFTA, in providing guidance in EU-Georgia relations, and in strengthening the links between the European Parliament and the Parliament of Georgia.
Co-Chair warmly welcomed the continuous deepening of EU-Georgia relations, which were marked by new historical achievements in EU-Georgia relations in particular the entry into force on 28 March 2017 of the visa-free regime between the EU and Georgia and the accession on 1 July 2017 of Georgia to the Energy Community Treaty. She further noted, that for the past several years, Georgia has been investing into building a strong European democracy with effective democratic institutions and open governance system, political pluralism, and strong rule of law and human rights protection, a functioning market economy and favorable business environment.
Tamar KHULORDAVA reaffirmed that with political cooperation and tangible assistance from the European Union the common goals are being achieved and more is to be done in the future. The effective and full implementation of the Association Agreement remains a top priority for the state. Considering the accomplishments she pointed out Parliament’s resolve to double its efforts to provide new guidance for European Integration processes of Georgia, to ensure the legislative approximation with EU norms and standards.
Ms KHULORDAVA voiced her expectations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels in November 2017. She assessed the Eastern Partnership as a successful political project, allowing for a well-structured working process. Despite the fact that with the AA and DCFTA EU-Georgia cooperation has reached a new level, Georgia looks ahead for new opportunities and a forward-looking vision for progressive development of partnership. She noted that comprehensive political association and economic integration will create a solid ground for Georgia’s deeper political integration into the EU in the long-term perspective. She pointed out that Georgia, as the frontrunner of the Eastern Partnership, hopes that summit will proudly declare that Georgia has common European future.
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EN United in diversity EN Co-Chair Mr. KARIM welcomed important steps towards deepening relations between EU and Georgia, and historical decision of establishing visa-free regime for Georgian citizens. Traveling into Schengen area appears to be positive signal for further perception that Georgia belongs to the European family. He also stressed Georgia’s accession to the European Energy Community shows state’s commitment to succeed in its connection to European Energy Market by developing new sources of the Energy, strengthening energy infrastructure and ensuring fair competition among the suppliers. Furthermore, Co-Chair welcomed the implementation of Association Agenda where Georgia is advancing by taking advantages of increased financial support from the EU, which is twice more than a decade ago.
Co-Chair welcomed the major democratic reforms that are in line with Georgia’s commitments towards the political association and economic integration with the EU, concerning democratic modernization, the judiciary, fight against corruption, public administration, good governance, penitentiary and human rights.
Sajjad KARIM recalled the ongoing constitutional reform process in Georgia. He also stressed, that Georgia should follow the Venice commission advice and dare to reach consensus among all political groups and civil society. He added that the EU institutions share the opinion of Venice Commission. He stated that the ongoing transition from a presidential to the parliamentary system should meet the expectations of Georgian citizens and help the country to advance on its path to get even closer to the EU.
Mr. KARIM concluded by praising Georgia’s contribution towards the successful implementation of Eastern Partnership and expressed hopes that upcoming summit provides good basis for Georgia's ambitions to deepen partnership with the EU.
2. Adoption of the Draft Agenda
The draft agenda was amended due to the unavailability of some speakers. The item 6 of the agenda: The Peaceful Settlement of Conflict in Georgia has been discussed during the both working sessions of the Committee Meeting.
3. Adoption of the Minutes of the Fourth Meeting of the EU-Georgia PAC held in Strasbourg on 15-16 February 2017
Members were informed that the minutes of this meeting, prepared as usual by the host Parliament, had been distributed and were available in their files. It was agreed that if no correction suggestions would have been received by the following day, they would be deemed adopted.
4. State of play of EU-Georgia relations: Opening statements by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia, Mr Vakhtang MAKHAROBLISHVILI and H.E. Mr Janos HERMAN, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mr. MAKHAROBLISHVILI presented the current state of play of EU-Georgia relations, marked with major turning points for Georgia. He affirmed the visa-free regime for Georgia as the most visible and tangible gain for the entire population of the country and an additional incentive for the Georgian government to continue the pace of reforms. He presented the constructive working relations between the government and the European institutions to ensure smooth operation of the visa-free regime. Mr. MAKHAROBLISHVILI thanked the EU’s for its solid assistance through a wide-range of programs and instruments that has been vital in achieving the common objectives, including EU’s targeted support for SMEs, through EU4Business and the DCFTA facility, as well as ENPARD, which has proved extremely instrumental for Georgian farmers. Deputy Minister shed the light on the implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement and stressed that much has been done and acknowledged that more needs to be accomplished in order to achieve the shared goals of EU-Georgia partnership, he expressed hope that the EU’s support will PE619.944v01-00 2/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN continue to strengthen and expand to correspond the ambitious goals of Association Agreement. Mr. MAKHAROBLISHVILI stated that Georgia continues to move forward on the European integration through the concrete plan, according to which the concrete approximation policies are identified as following: legislative and institutional approximation, enhancing Georgia’s involvement in the EU specialized agencies and programs, deepening sectorial cooperation, expanding interconnections, as well as intensifying cooperation in the field of security and defense.
Ambassador Janos HERMAN, Head of the European Union Delegation to Georgia, also addressed the Committee, and underlined the importance of the Parliamentary Association Committee meeting format for the association process. Mr HERMAN assessed the current state of play of EU-Georgia relations as strong and closer as never before, based on the lasting commitments on both sides of EU-Georgia relations. He stressed that by Georgian side these commitments are to advance the democratic reforms and to further promote European values and from the EU side the commitment is to facilitate the process of the approximation through the instruments and means that the European Union has.
EU Ambassador emphasized that one year anniversary of the Association Agreement coincides with the new development in Georgian Parliamentarism, the process which is closely scrutinized by the EU and reminded that consensual approaches and inclusiveness are the basic European value underlying the all political processes.
On the planned Eastern Partnership summit Mr HERMAN expressed hope for generating further impetus to develop the Eastern Partnership and overall relationships. He recognized Georgia’s willingness to be acknowledged for its democratic achievements.
Mr. HERMAN commented on the progress of the democratic process and human rights, rule of law and good governance, stressed the decisive significance of justice sector and noted EU’s appreciation for Georgia’s contribution to Foreign and Security Policy. He also reaffirmed that the EU is committed to continue grant support to Georgia, and confirmed that European Union is to continue more engagement in the areas of connectivity and transport to deliver on the joint task for contributing to economic resilience and economic development for the benefit of ever wider group of Georgians.
5. Democratic Reforms and Protection of fundamental freedoms in Georgia
Constitutional Reform
The Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Mr. Irakli KOBAKHIDZE gave the overview on the constitutional reform process that began in December, 2016, as a key priority of the pre-election program of the “Georgian Dream” Party, and outlined the activities of the state constitutional commission, composed of 73 members.
After some unsuccessful attempts of undertaking constitutional reform in previous years, the Parliament launched an ambitious constitutional reform plan that implied that within 4 months the State Constitutional Commission (with participation of major parties and the civil society) would develop a draft text of constitutional amendments. The Commission aimed at to establish a constitutional system fully in line with the fundamental principles of the constitutional law that would contribute to and serve the purpose of long-term democratic development of Georgia. As a result of intensive work, which was carried out under great public scrutiny, the draft was elaborated. Speaker of the Parliament noted that from the beginning the CoE Venice Commission participated very actively in the process. He reiterated that no single norm assessed negatively by the Venice Commission would be adopted by the Parliament of Georgia in the process of constitutional reform. The refinement of the constitution aimed at reformulation of the powers and responsibilities of the branches of Government, for clear delineation of competences between various constitutional bodies, the absence of which had at times created awkward situations in practice.
PV\619.944EN.docx 3/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN The constitutional amendments provide for guaranteed rule of law and the social state, more autonomous local governance, further reinforce oversight functions and strengthen the responsibility and accountability of the government before the Parliament of Georgia. He also emphasized that unlike current regulation, which enables only majority of the parliament to set up the investigation commission, the new draft allows minority as well to enjoy this right.
Mr KOBAKHIDZE further remarked the controversial issues among political forces during the constitutional reform process, mainly related to 5% threshold, presidential indirect election and the move to fully proportional system from 2024.
Chairman, Mr KOBAKHIDZE stressed that the choice between proportional and single mandate majority system is the matter of political choice and are legitimate as many EU member states also have such systems in place. While Georgia will be moving to fully proportional system only after the 2020 Parliamentary elections, he also stressed that the election system has been changed considerably already for 2020 Parliamentary elections – by lowering the election threshold from 5 to 3% and by allowing electoral blocks for this one time.
Chairman concluded that with the constructive engagement and support of Venice Commission, the advanced text of sound Constitution has been developed that will serve long-term democratic development of Georgia by establishing a system fully in line with the best European traditions of parliamentary democracy.
Ms. SAMADASHVILI, UNM, criticized the ongoing constitutional reform and claimed that this process served only the political interests of the ruling party. She added that proposed constitutional changes woul lead the country to the political crisis and negatively affect the EU-Georgia relations as well as the development of the country. She warned that the current government does not learn the historical lessons from the previous governments abusing the constitutional majority. She also noted that United National Movement party, together with the other oppositional parties, plans to send a letter to the Venice Commission to outline the common position on the constitutional reform in Georgia. She voiced concerns that during the constitutional drafting, none of the position of UNM were taken into the consideration.
Ms Heidi HAUTALLA encouraged the political forces for more consensual approaches for the interest of current debate. She also stressed that indirect election of the president is obvious reality for many European countries.
Reform of the justice sector and human rights protection including issues of labour rights, personal data, rights of minorities and independence of media
The First Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia, Ms Tamar CHUGOSHVILI started her presentation by emphasizing the Georgia’s positions in the influential international rankings, related to the freedom of press and expression. She stressed that Georgia is among the 9 countries worldwide that shows the progress in freedom of press. Georgia is the country where human rights policies and institutions are actually working, policies are not only on paper, they are affectively implemented and institutions are quite strong.
Ms CHUGOSHVILI talked about the active interaction between the Parliament of Georgia and the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia, the institution that enjoys absolute independence throughout the years.
Ms CHUGOSHVILI positively described the creation of the personal data protection inspector in the country in 2013 as an important step towards strengthening institutions that are responsible for the protection of human rights. She presented the improvements in the judiciary and gave the information about comprehensive waves of reforms in the system, resulted in depoliticizing the High Council of Justice and increased transparency in justice sector.
PE619.944v01-00 4/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN She positively assessed the ongoing constitutional reform under the supervision of the Parliament of Georgia, also shed the light on the reform of Prosecutor’s Office, making entirely independent institution, in the executive branch, isolated from the political decision-making process.
Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament recalled the National strategy for the protection of human rights in Georgia 2014-2020, together with its Action Plan as newly developed mechanisms to guarantee the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country. All the developments were reflected in the positive assessments in credible international rankings.
She also mentioned the developments in the field of administration of elections contributing to holding elections on a high quality level.
Ms CHUGOSHVILI emphasized the developments in the field of penitentiary in order to eliminate the ill-treatment and torture, stressed the importance of the antidiscrimination legislation to ensure the protection of citizens from any form of discrimination. She concluded with presenting the plans of the Parliament to safeguard the democratic control over the human rights protection and domestic reforms aimed at consolidating democracy in the country.
First Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia, Mr. Alexander Baramidze started his presentation by emphasizing the Georgia’s upcoming chairmanship of Open Government Partnership as recognition of Georgia’s progress in democratization, fight against corruption and establishing democratic institutions.
Mr. BARAMIDZE stressed the countries’ achievements in combating the corruption rightly reflected in relevant rankings by the international organizations. He presented the third wave of reforms of judiciary implemented by the government which was positively evaluated by COE Venice commission and other international authoritative organizations.
Mr. BARAMIDZE talked about the electronic distribution of cases to the judges, as a result no case may be allocated to any judge by human interference. Mr. BARAMIDZE stressed the fact of establishing a brand new institution in the judiciary called Inspectorate. The speaker pointed out consideration of this institution as powerful tool for promoting accountability of judges. He went on talking about the independence of judiciary, internally and externally, independence as institution of the whole and independence of individual judges.
Mr. BARAMIDZE emphasized the importance of mediation law, stating that while it has already been introduced in the Georgian civil procedure it is not being applied due to lack of public confidence in this mechanism of alternative dispute resolution. In addition he noted low public awareness on the issue. He talked about the decision to establish a self-regulatory institution for mediators like the bar association which would take care of the profession and establishing the rules of the game for the mediation, which would regulate entry into profession. Georgian government considered creating this institution to help Georgian courts to cope with the excessive caseload.
Alexander BARAMIDZE emphasized the importance of establishing of commercial/tax chambers within the Georgian judiciary. This chamber would ensure higher quality of justice which would meet the needs of the investors and administration of justice.
Mr. BARAMIDZE talked about the ongoing process aimed at drafting the law on freedom of information. He put forward his plans to reinforce existing institutions and to establish new institution which would be a supervisory body over the implementation of freedom of information standards by all public agencies.
Mr. BARAMIDZE pointed out that the drafting of enforcement code is necessary because the current enforcement law which Georgia has enacted many years ago, no longer meets international requirement in the area of enforcement of court judgements. He also noted that the enforcement of judgement is an
PV\619.944EN.docx 5/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN integral part of article 6 of ECHR (Right to a fair trial). In conclusion, Mr BARAMIDZE talked about new law on Entrepreneurs which bring this sector into full compliance with DCFTA, Association Agenda and Association Agreement requirements.
Data Protection Issues
Ms Tamar KALDANI, stated that Georgia is implementing comprehensive reforms in data protection, which aim at approximating Georgian legislation and practice with European standards and providing adequate level of data protection to the citizens. Thus, independence of data protection has been improved in accordance with 2014 legal amendments. Authority increased mandate, achieving full oversight over private as well as public sectors and has been entrusted with special mandate to supervise data process in practices of law enforcement and authority, in terms of crime prevention and investigation. Reforms in the field of data protection have been positively evaluated during visa liberalization process and data protection remains one of the priorities of the Association Agreement.
Tamar KALDANI emphasized the importance of cooperation between the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector and the Government and Parliament to implement Action Plan of the Association Agenda. She also mentioned supervisory power with the objective to efficiently address existing demands by proactive inspections by swift response to the complaints, awareness-raising campaigns and providing sectors with specific guidelines and recommendations. Significant progress has been made in terms of institutional development of the office. She underlined the significance of the bilateral cooperation with data protection authorities of the EU member states in capacity building and supporting initiatives. Achieving certain degree of improvement in certain sectors, many public institutions and private organizations, such as: penitentiary sector, banks, educational and health institutions have improved their standards. Tamar KALDANI pointed out that the EU data protection reform, general data protection regulation and police directive serve as a roadmap for Georgia’s further reforms in this sector.
Open Parliament Georgia, Priorities for the upcoming OGP Chairmanship
Ms Irina PRUIDZE, Deputy Chairperson of the European Integration Committee, presented Georgia’s one-year chairmanship of the Open Governance Partnership. She assessed this development as the recognition of the comprehensive and successful reforms implemented by Georgia over the last few years. The OGP was launched in 2011 by 10 countries and by 2015 it encompassed of 75 countries. One of the four main goals of the OGP is strengthening citizen engagement. Georgia has already had quite significant achievements and it strives to deepen citizen-oriented governance. Another goal is transparency and anti-corruption, sharing experience of fighting corruption with partners and propose concrete ways to advance reforms.
Ms PRUIDZE talked about the process of fighting corruption. She mentioned the procedures of electronic declaration for public officials and electronic procurement system, e–budgeting and e- treasury that have been introduced. Georgia has gone through rapid transformation with notable success and sharing and keeping these developments, further improving services using modern technologies and innovations are crucial. The final goal is to build a better partnership and rising the OGP’s profile globally. Nevertheless, the courts have judiciary committed by proactively publishing the surveillance data and the Tbilisi Municipality has recently joined the OGP by adopting its first action plan and being one of the fifteen pilot programs in the world.
Ms PRUIDZE further discussed the Parliamentary dimension of Open Governance. The permanent council of the Parliament of Georgia was created in 2015 and it is currently implementing the second action plan. Besides, serving its own action plan, Parliament has also supported the implementation of national open government plan by passing different laws, such as civil service reform, property declaration for public officials, the freedom of will of work and freedom of information act, the recently- adopted environment impact assessment code, etc.
PE619.944v01-00 6/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN She emphasized the exemplary cooperation with the civil society. The Parliamentary Council performs together with the consultative group comprised of 15 international as well as national CSOs and donor organizations and this cooperation is utterly successful due to the joint commitments. In the second action plan, all of the 5 sets of the commitments (25 in total) are based on the four core principles of open governance, such as: transparency, citizen participation, accountability, technology and innovation.
The first set of commitments is citizen’s participation, including submitting petitions, proposals and initiatives electronically. This commitment capacitates the citizens with the opportunity to use modern technologies for their active engagement in legislative activities. Furthermore, it is vital to provide access for people with special needs to the Parliament, improve and create respective services in the Parliament for participation. The second set consists of ensuring access to public information. Each Committee of the Parliament should formally create its own action plan. Ms PRUIDZE emphasized the importance of proactive publication of different reports on legislative amendments and including the travels of the MPs. The third set encompasses accountability, formalizing annual public reports of the Parliament. She also mentioned that the self-assessment instrument for the Parliament of Georgia has been launched, which will contribute to the institutional development of the Parliament.
The fourth set aims at increasing transparency of different commissions’ work and code of ethics are being considered. This is one of the most important commitments of the second action plan. It was the first draft that was already developed by the previous council but not approved. Working on this draft has been started the enforcement mechanisms and sanctions have been developed. Therefore, the code of ethics is practically ready for adoption. Ms PRUIDZE stated that there is ongoing work on improving the content of explanatory notes, which have greater significance for more efficient work of the Parliament and its members. It also includes more active involvement of civil society and citizens in the legislative processes.
The final set includes technologies and innovation. Ms PRUIDZE emphasized the importance of necessity to restructure more informative and accessible website of the Parliament. She stated that the main goal of the set is to achieve accountable, transparent and professional governance. She underlined this opportunity for Georgia to demonstrate success and also to further accelerate its reforms, which will eventually lead to hosting the Global Summit on open governance the following year.
Ms Salome SAMADASHVILI stressed the importance of independence of the courts and the independence of media in Georgia. She stated that it has become necessary to use the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in order to save the Rustavi2. She stated that Rustavi 2 case was a clear illustration of judicial failure in Georgia. She also discussed the recent case of abduction of the Azerbaijani journalist, Afgan Mukhtarli from the Georgian territory. Lastly, she emphasized the question of the parliamentary oversight, the reforms which is planned to be implemented. She expressed regrets that her request to bring the prosecutor general to the Legal Committee and to hear about the uninvestigated criminal cases had been dismissed by the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee. She admitted that opposition calls to use the Investigative Commission for examining the issues of the high social interest are also ignored. She stated the Parliament of Georgia was a weak institution which endangers democracy.
Ms Claire MOODY emphasized the importance of the entrepreneurship legislation and courts for corporate environment. Ms MOODY underlined significance of enforcement of legislation. Finally, she underlined importance of the labor code and labor inspectorate and welcomed progress in this direction.
Ms Tamar CHUGOSHVILI talked about the new draft law on occupation safety, which would establish the safety standards in work places where people have hazardous jobs. By 2019 the new regulations would be applied to all employment positions. She mentioned that this process has been blocked for several years. Georgian civil society organizations pays stronger attention to this issue and the
PV\619.944EN.docx 7/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN Parliament is working for the best solution at this stage. This generates an opportunity to test these new regulations, which then can be expanded to the entire employment market.
Ms CHUGOSHVILI also referred to Ms SAMADASHVILI’s statement in relation to request to interview the Chief Prosecutor at the Parliament. She noted that it is very basic that Parliament cannot question Prosecutor on individual cases. The one of the Venice Commission recommendations ensures that politicians do not interfere with the work of the prosecutor’s office in that way. She stated that the decision of the chair of the Committee was the right decision on this request.
As for the media freedom, Georgia is among 9 countries, which have shown the progress on freedom of press. Critical opinions must be encouraged in Georgia. The media is very much dominated by the critical assessments and the presence of the opposition. This is in favor of Georgia’s democratic progress and development and as for the Rustavi2 case, court judgment was pending.
The last point concerning judiciary, Ms CHUGOSHVILI stated that disputes in the private sector is the only one direction of the judicial reform. However, work on judicial system reform continued. This process includes some of the vital issues, such as disciplinary actions, accountability of this systems, as well as of individual judges, appointment system of the judges, the rules of procedure for the operation of the high council of justice. All the topics that have been identified by international partners, as well as civil society organizations. Further reforms in judiciary are aimed at increasing independence and efficiency of judiciary.
6.1 The peaceful settlement of conflict in Georgia
Co-Chair Ms KHULORDAVA expressed her gratitude to European Partners for supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and condemned Russia’s persistent violation of the commitment and international obligation under the 2008 Ceasefire Agreement. She also expressed regrets that the EU Monitoring Mission is deprived the possibility to implement its mandate on the entire territory of Georgia.
Ms Ketevan TSIKHELASHVILI, State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia, pointed out that unresolved conflicts remain a challenge for the stability and peace in the country as well as for the region. Russian military presence had been boosted by around 10 000 manpower. Russia is taking over all spheres of life in the occupied territories and takes steps towards de facto annexation and the sweeping russification of Georgian territories. There is no international security or human rights mechanisms allowed, not even the temporary missions to monitor human rights situation on the ground. She expressed hope that the EUMM, which is only international monitoring mechanism on the ground after the Russia-Georgia War in August 2008, will eventually gain access to the other side of administrative boundary line.
The current dynamics display not only the security implications but a humanitarian drama of 1000 families. “Borderization” of the last couple of months, such as new barricades, banners, ditches, being installed along the occupational line, splitting the villages and families, neighbors, blocking their access to farmlands, cemeteries, etc. All the attempts to find humanitarian solutions up to now have been failed. The arbitrary detention of locals continues, these are mainly farmers moving in their own lands and this is not a problem only for the Georgians. During last year 3 times more Ossetians had been captured by the Russians FSB guard at the occupation line from entering to the rest of Georgia’s territories and other way around. Apart from Georgians who were urged to live during the armed conflict, a number of Ossetians left due to despair and lack of prospects. Human rights situation is quite grave and particularly hard for the ethnically Georgian population living in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region. In 2015, all remaining 11 Georgian schools were closed down, Georgian language was exterminated from tutorials. These actions are a clear example of ethnic discrimination.
The situation does not compliment the interest of Georgians, nor Abkhaz or Ossetians. This issue concerns the whole region since 5 Eastern Partnership countries out of 6, which have unresolved PE619.944v01-00 8/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN conflicts, share one comment denominator – Russia. This is a very clear willingness of division and rule as far as these conflicts persist unresolved. Russia is encouraged to replicate the same divisions into rule strategy not only in this region but well beyond. Hence it is a problem of larger European security and this urges to make concrete steps to find solutions to these conflicts for durable peace and stability. State Minister reaffirmed that Georgia is committed to peace policy and reconciliation for peaceful conflict resolution and seeks all possible ways of close cooperation with international community to support the priority tasks to be achieved.
Ms TSIKHELASHVILI pointed out that the strategy of reconciliation and engagement is already in action. She noted that 4 out of 6 crossing points into Abkhazia were closed in the last years. The State Minister stressed that this development occurred against the background of increasing interest from the other side and not only Georgians living in Gali but the Abkhaz who would travel for health care, trade, education, entertainment, and for visiting relatives.
Despite Government of Georgia’s efforts, Ms TSIKHELASHVILI stressed that more efforts were needed to build bridges over those walls. Ms TSIKHELASHVILI emphasized the importance of confidence building for the community based dialogue and people-to-people contacts, which would represent a justified investment in peace.
Minister underlined the importance of non-recognition policy as central for engagement and reconciliation. She also stated that Geneva international discussions remained one of the sole platforms for the dialuge with Russia, under the chairmanship of the EU, UN and OSCE.
Ms TSIKHELASHVILI stated that since 2008 there had been politization of even humanitarian issues, such as access to the lands, crossing for school kids, etc. She regretted that there was no progress on major issues on the agenda such as non-use of force or enactment international security mechanisms or return of the IDPs and refugees.
Ms TSIKHELASHVILI stated that Russia permanently attempts to portray conflicts in Georgia as Georgian-Abkhaz or Georgian-Ossetian format, she reaffirmed that the core of the format is the conflict between Russia-Georgia, which keeps Russia as responsible conflict party. Ms TSIKHELASHVILI underlined that any tangible progress of Georgia on its European way is important not only for overall development of the country, but also for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Co-Chair Ms KHULORDAVA stated that there is no alternative to the engagement policy, that is being implemented by the government and she welcomed the steps taken for confidence building and promoting people-to-people contacts between the societies divided by administrative boundary line. Mr MAMIKINS mentioned that European Parliament voted in favor of financial capacity for the EUMM and noted that the mission is helpful for Georgia’s sovereignty and reaffirmed his support in process of peaceful conflict resolution, underlining the importance of dialogue between the parties, referring to the fact that Geneva and Abashidze-Karasini talks’ format had no tangible result yet.
6.2 The peaceful settlement of conflict in Georgia
1. Co-Chair, Ms KHULORDAVA opened the second session of the PAC Meeting and invited the head of the EU Monitoring Mission Mr Eric HØEG to address the Committee. The EU Monitoring Mission, Mr Erik HØEG, pointed out that the EUMM remains the only international monitoring presence on the ground and is the primary source of unbiased information. The head of the EUMM presented an overview on the situation at the boundary line under the mission mandate area and stressed that mission is carrying out the range of activities within EU policy framework, including the policy of non- recognition. He noted that EUMM’s present mandate expires in December 2018 and respective continuation would be decided by the Council. He described the situation on the ground as managed stability that requires work to keep things stable, where incidents, sometimes serious incidents, continue to occur. He also spoke about the cooperation with security actors, including with the Co-Chairs of
PV\619.944EN.docx 9/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN Geneva International talks and about the efforts in order to deescalate the situation and facilitate the communication between the parties.
2. He stressed that freedom of movement for conflict-affected populations both in Abkhaz and South Ossetian territories remained severely restricted and that was an issue of serious concern for the mission. Over the past months the administrative boundary line - the ABL was hardened. The moves had continued to reinforce physical barriers and create the impression of so-called demarcation by Tskhinvali and the border guards of the Russian Federation. In March, 2017, two crossing points, Kurcha and Orsantia, were closed to force local communities to cross at the Enguri bridge, being the only opportunity to travel.
Mr HØEG also mentioned that above-mentioned facts negatively affected local communities in a number of ways, including increasing the cost and time of travel that cut ABL trade in the area of Gali region and reduced the income for the conflict-affected population. The crossings for medical purposes was also complicated and the mission put an effort to facilitate this situation. According to the analytical document prepared by the mission, the number of schoolchildren crossing from Gali region to the part of Georgia had to pass crossing procedures by the various life cycle documents and permits by the de- facto authorities.
In the context of education, the mission is currently following development of the Akhalgori valley and with the South Ossetian de-facto authorities strives to change the language of instruction. This might affect up to 100 children in six schools in the Akhalgori valley in South Ossetia. The mission is also monitoring closely military developments and looking at their effects on the stability.
The Head of the Mission also talked about the opportunity for the hotline, which is operated on the 24/7 basis by the mission, actively used by all the parties to reduce tensions, avoid misunderstandings and prevent escalations. However, last year there were 1600 activations of the hotline, which is an average of 4-5 call per day. The hotline is often activated to discuss the tension cases at the ABL but also the wide variety of other issues requiring communication, such as medical crossings that are facilitated by the mission.
Furthermore, Mr Eric HØEG highlighted some progress in promoting cross-ABL dialogue on the issues that are important for conflict-affected populations, for example the maintenance of irrigation systems. However, the discussions related to freedom of movement and borderization are difficult and usually end in a deadlock. Within the framework of Ergneti IPRM, the mission is presently trying to prove so- called safe farming initiative that would allow local farmers to use agriculture land at the ABL. In parallel, the mission is promoting voluntary exchange of information on military and security activities in the proximity of the administrative boundary line. There are plenty of activities conducted by military/security actors that could and not arguably should be pre-analyzed via the hotline in order to reduce tension, avoid incidents and misunderstandings. The mission also produces base in the Gali IPRM that was restarted in 2016 of the full year suspension. The fatal case of Ms. Otkhosoria, killed by a de facto Abkhaz border guard dominated the Gali IPRM agenda until recently. He disapproved the decision of the Abkhaz de facto authorities not to bring the murder suspect to travel. The mission encouraged relevant access not to stop criminal investigation and to cooperate until justice is served. The EUMM also used Gali IPRM as a platform to raise concerns about restrictions for the freedom of movement. Head of the EUMM stated that the mission plans to continue its functional cooperation with the relevant Georgian institutions and authorities in implementing the mandate. Ms Irina PRUIDZE highlighted the importance of the support from the reliable partners, committed to peaceful resolution of the conflict. She expressed appreciation for the EUMM presence near the occupied territories and their dedication to peaceful resolution and reconciliation, which will lead Georgia to overcome these difficulties.
PE619.944v01-00 10/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN Ms Nino GOGUADZE mentioned that the residents of occupied territories have no access and opportunity to get education in their own language. There is a great deal of human rights violation and all the governmental institutions should be involved in this process with support of the EUMM.
7. Preparing for the Eastern Partnership Summit: Prospects and expectations
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mr. MAKHAROBLISHVILI started by acknowledging that Eastern Partnership has matured as a successful political project, to which everybody invested and has gained in accordance with their interest and individual merits. He highlighted that there is a need to find the fresh impetus to Eastern Partnership and to look ahead for new opportunities that would prepare grounds for higher level of integration with the EU for interested partners, like Georgia.
Mr MAKHAROBLISHVILI stated that Georgia and other associated partners are at the front line of a severe aggression directed towards the EU and its unity. Russian aggression in Georgia and Ukraine which resulted in the occupation of territories of these countries by Russia stands as a clear proof of Moscow’s determination to deter these countries from deepening their European Integration courses.
Mr MAKHAROBLISHVILI also mentioned that the Eastern Partnership is not directed against anyone. However, Russia has chosen to present initiative as a source of competition with the EU in the shared neighborhood. Mr MAKHAROBLISHVILI stressed that since the inception on the Eastern Partnership Russia has been influencing the developments in EaP implementation by using all possible means and tactics and to some extent succeeded to demonstrate without political denomination. In this attempts Russia has neglected and violated key international principals of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
Therefore, the EU’s strong political support is the only solution associated partners can have. He emphasized the importance to have a forward looking Eastern Partnership summit that would send a strong political massage to those partners who wish to achieve deeper political integration within the EU. As well as with the strong political massage it will be possible to successfully confront disinformation and anti-western propaganda, which is widely spread in associated countries and the EU.
Deputy Minister also stressed that, it is important to develop a tailor-made approach to each and every partner, while preserving the inclusiveness of all partners according to their interests. Reiteration of territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders and a commitment to the peaceful conflict resolution is critical for Georgia. On this line, he welcomed that the EP Recommendation on Eastern Partnership places a specific focus on this priority – maintaining EU’s collective pressure on Russia.
In his speech Mr. MAKHAROBLISHVILI welcomed EU document “20 Deliverables for 2020”, which offers a concrete road-map to deliver practical results across priority sectors. The deliverables, including SME growth and public private dialogue, business support services and access to finances, harmonization of digital market and public administration reform, as well as expanding the interconnections, are streamlined with the four priorities of the Georgian Government and concluded that the Eastern Partnership should remain attractive for all partners and avoid the approach of “one size fits all”. He concluded that this should not be translated as undermining the unity of the Partnership. The value of the differentiation principle lies in the right of partners to choose the level of integration according to their own interests. Ms KHULORDAVA reaffirmed that Eastern Partnership needs to get additional energy in order to avoid the possibility of the loss of its significance. Along with the practical implementation of EU’s “More for More” policy, Georgia shows readiness to deliver more. Ms KHULORDAVA reaffirmed Georgia’s expectations that the EU will scale up the financial assistance to match the ambitious goals that are jointly undertaken with the Association Agreement. This is the priority for the both sides and further commitments should be accomplished in order to unify forces and deliver results. Ms Heidi HAUTALA mentioned that the more-for-more principle can be implemented in the framework of EURONEST PA, where three Association Countries should strengthen the cooperation. She
PV\619.944EN.docx 11/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN mentioned that the External Actions Service is slightly skeptical towards the instrument, which is in line with “More and More”.
8. The Progress and challenges in the implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA)
The Deputy Minister, Mr Genadi ARVELADZE presented the implementation process of the EU- Georgia Deep and Comprehensives Free Trade Area Agreement. He pointed out that the economic policy of Georgia is based on free market principles with orientation of the private sector development and macroeconomic stability. During the last years, Georgia witnessed the highest economic growth in the region and according to the data of 2016, GDP growth remained 2.7%. In 2017, also already some strong positive tendencies were recorded and according to the 1st half of 2017, Georgia had almost 4.9% of GPD growth. He shared the projections by the international financial institutions that Georgia will have one of the highest growth rates among the Eastern European and the Central Asian countries. The increase in external trade contributed to the economic growth in 2017. The export has increased around 29% and in the first quarter of 2017, current account deficit has improved and amounted around 11.8 % of GPD.
The Deputy Minister pointed out that the reforms guided by the 4- point plan will boost economy growth in the upcoming years and improve the structure of the economy that will be translated into more investment opportunities and increased level of employment. The reforms are aimed at boosting savings and investments, widening and modernizing the production and more liquidity for the private sector, in particular, for the SMEs. Mr Arveladze also talked about the capital market reform. He highlighted the importance of the capital market development in the governmental reforms agenda. These reforms aims to improve access to long- term financial resources fostering investment in the economy and increase resilience of the financial system against the shocks. Mr ARVELADZE noted that the strategy for capital market development was approved by the Government of Georgia, aimed at bringing Georgian capital market legal and regulatory framework closer to the international practices and standards including the core EU directives.
Furthermore, he stated that under the government reforms, one of the top priorities in the agenda aims to increase the inclusion of private sector in the decision-making, which is one of the key objectives to ensure more predictable business environment in Georgia. In this regard, the concept of the Business House, ensuring the provision of all government services to the private sector in a single space, with the single-window principle, have been already elaborated. The Business House will provide over 600 services to the private sector operators, meaning that time and resources will be saved, which is essential for the private sector development. Mr ARVELADZE also underlined the development of very important e-platform and web portal as a good mechanism for e-governance of Georgia.
Talking about promoting entrepreneurship, he underlined that the Government of Georgia actively works in order to promote and support the private sector development in the country and one of the top priorities is supporting the SMEs development and raising the competitiveness of SMEs’ needs. According to the recent figures, the private sector is growing to become more competitive and is becoming capable of exporting to the EU and other relevant world markets.
First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr Nodar KERESELIDZE emphasized the importance of agriculture for Georgia’s economy. He mentioned that, more than 43% of population of Georgia is employed in agricultural sector. Nonetheless, the contribution of agricultural sector to the total GDP of the country is solely 9% but this is not the only important statistical figure. The considerable figure is to measure how the governmental reforms affect the total production output of agricultural sector. He highlighted that DCFTA and the Association Agreement with the EU support for Georgia have tremendous significance. With regard to ENPARD program, Georgia is undergoing the second phase of the program and negotiates the 3rd phase. The 1st phase of the program was focused on strengthening agricultural extension system in Georgia. Thus, the government has the possibility to disseminate relevant information for the farmers through the extension centers, including conducting small trainings, PE619.944v01-00 12/14 PV\619.944EN.docx EN conveying up-to-date information on brand-new technologies on the agriculture field in order to increase awareness and competitiveness for their working process.
Mr Nodar KERESELIDZE talked about the newly elaborated Law on agricultural cooperatives, with the ENPARD program support, creating the special agency under the Ministry of Agriculture to support agricultural cooperatives as a result of all these joint efforts. As a result, 1400 new agricultural cooperatives has been established in Georgia, which is extremely successful, though not enough. Another important aspect, he stated, is to approximate Georgia’s legislation to SBS field of food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary fields of the AA/DCFTA. According to the Chapter 4 of the AA/DCFTA, it is the obligation that Georgian side should accomplish. There are approximately 272 EU regulations, directives, decisions listed in this annex of chapter 4 to be approximated. According to the presented data, Georgia has already approximated up to 60 legislations and has 19 new legislation for adoption this year. Mr Kereselidze presented the rural development strategy elaborated in partnership with the ENPARD program. The Deputy Minister shared his appreciation for the expected benefits of the AA/DCFTA full implementation for the citizens of Georgia.
Co-Chair, Ms. KHULORDAVA stated that the European Union plays a significant role by politically supporting Georgia’s reforms as well as financially contributing to these wide range of reforms presented by the two Deputy Ministers.
Mr RAY spoke about the EU assistance in the different sectors aimed to contribute to Georgia’s successful European way. He stressed that the Association Agreement and DCFTA have very detailed and ambitious road map with a number of tough milestones. He underlined that Georgia has been a strong reformer since the Rose Revolution and that has also rated by a number of international indexes. He also noted, an ambitious vision provided by the Association Agenda and the corresponding clear strategic vision of the Government of Georgia declared by the 4-point plan. He talked about the donor coordination activities of the Government. The important efforts in order to meet a number of very demanding benchmarks of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan was highlighted which had been facilitated by whole series of the EU support programmes.
Deputy State Minister, Mr KARAULASHVILI spoke about the EU assistance. He underlined that Georgia is perceived as a leader among the Eastern Partnership countries due to the EU’s support and assistance. Georgia and the European Union share the vision about the development of the country and are cooperating very successfully in terms of implementation of the various assistance instruments, starting from the institutional building instruments, TAIEX, SIGMA and TWINNING.
Mr KARAULASHVILI discussed the ongoing European integration reforms in Georgia and their visibility. He stressed that the fruitful EU assistance is behind in every successful reform in Georgia. Government tries its best to promote the implementation of the EU-Georgia joint reforms but the EU financial instruments should be adjusted to the new needs and realities of the AA necessities in compliance with the best experiences of countries in accession, so-called IPA instruments. This new instrument of assistance will better fit into the demand of the associated countries, which will be more enhanced in scope and better targeted on the citizens. The Deputy State Minister argued that the so- called assistance “Marshal Plan” for Ukraine, should be also targeted to Georgia and Moldova since they are also associated countries and have similar status in terms of relations with the EU and should be also included in a wider assistance perspective from the EU side. Mr KARAULASHVILI also stated that Georgia also fully supports conditionality approach that is requested by the member states and the parliamentarians as well. In addition, Mr KARAULASHVILI spoke about civil society involvement in above-mentioned processes for transparency and governmental agenda that prioritize inclusiveness and transparency. He also mentioned that Georgia needs some guidance from the EU side and has already requested the commission for providing respective information examining the increased participation of Georgia into the programs of the EU agencies. These programs will serve strengthening the capacity of non-governmental sector in terms of monitoring the performance of the government while implementing the Association Agreement. Thus, inclusiveness and transparency are the key issues for successful reforms and cooperation.
PV\619.944EN.docx 13/14 PE619.944v01-00 EN Member of the Committee, Mr Beka NATSVLISHVILI mentioned that the Georgian government managed to achieve growth rate of 4.5%. However, with such growth rates it is impossible to exploit the opportunities of the DCFTA at least in 10 or 15 years. Georgia is still dependent on FDIs and bank loans to develop private sector and on the other hand, it implements the reforms which are aimed to create FDIs and market-oriented business environment. Therefore, there is difficulty to combine these two developments and there are attempts to keep the stable economy. He also stated that the same developments are taking place in other Eastern European countries. Therefore, it is necessary to create “new Europe”, where Eastern Europe and the core European countries will be equally developed. This is sometimes referred as the “Marshal Plan”. This scheme will encompass the investment in the infrastructure with the complex approaches, such as science, industry and a variety of sectors to lift the living and social conditions and purchasing power, to exploit all opportunities that are offered by the DCFTA. Otherwise, it is unachievable or will be possible only in twenty years to have more or less equal conditions in different European states.
MEP MOODY emphasized the significance of communication with the citizens on their employment opportunities and other kinds of prospects, including in the digital economy. Having referred to the above-mentioned, she welcomed the 30th year anniversary of Bristol- Tbilisi twinning as the clear exposition of the development of the economy and achievements.
MEP HAUTALA raised a question in terms of challenges and opportunities of the reform on the organic product regulation to correspond to the EU qualification and requirements for the export. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mr. KERESLIDZE responded to the question and noted that Georgia cannot be considered as a mass producer country and definitely bio-organic production is something that Georgia needs to focus on more. This year the government elaborated a new approach to support the farmers in bio-certification process which is the most costly and challenging part, needing several years to receive certification for bio-production. Financial and technical assistance provided by the Ministry in this direction was presented. The decree on bio-production adopted by the government in 2014 was highlighted in compliance with the EU regulations and the DCFTA. Co-Chairs expressed the gratitude for the presented information by the guest speakers and introduced the draft of the statement and recommendations of the 5th meeting of the Parliamentary Association Committee.
9. Adoption of the Final Statement and Recommendations
The Co-Chairs proceeded with the vote, it being understood that a double majority -i.e. a majority on each side of the two components- would be needed for the adoption of the amendments and of the final text. The Final Statement and Recommendations of the 5th PAC meeting was thus adopted as modified, with the double majority requirement being met: - EP component: 5 in favour, zero against, zero abstention. - Georgian component: 7 in favour, zero against, zero abstentions.
10. Any other business
No points were raised.
11. Date and Place of the next meeting.
Co-Chair KHULORDAVA announced that the next inter-parliamentary meeting would take place on March 22, 2018 in Brussels. Co-Chairs thanked the Committee Members for their cooperation and active engagement.
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