Issue no: 957 • JUNE 23 - 26, 2017 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... Carrefour & Wissol Group Georgia Form a Successful Partnership NEWS PAGE 3 Ukraine as an Insoluble Problem FOCUS POLITICS PAGE 4 ON CONSTITUTIONAL Business CHANGES Award As accusations and rumours fl y, we grab an exclusive interview 2017 with Venice Commission Secretary, BUSINESS PAGE 9 Thomas Markert PAGE 2&7 Shining Some Well- Deserved Light on ‘Shuki EU Market Opens for Georgia’s Black Sea Fish Movida’ SOCIETY PAGE 10 BY THEA MORRISON Announcing the Release of rom now Georgia will have the oppor- tunity to export its fi sh to the $500 ‘Georgia: A million market of the European Union. The EU has included Georgia in the Guide to the list of "third countries,” which will Fallow Georgia’s Black Sea fi sh and fi sh products Cradle of Wine’ to be imported to the EU market. CULTURE PAGE 13 This will be the third animal product to be allowed into the EU market after Georgian wool and honey. The information was released by the Agricul- Radio NRJ Partners ture Minister of Georgia, Levan Davitashvili and with GEM FEST the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Janos Herman, at a special press-conference. “At present, $30 million worth Georgian prod- CULTURE PAGE 15 Agriculture Minister levan davitashvili and the EU ambassador to Georgia Janos Herman ucts are exported to Turkey, which has been the only export market for Georgian fi sh to date,” Georgia has good potential in this direction… order to observe the food safety control system Davitashvili said. “From now on, Georgian prod- This decision will help Georgian fi sh become and make an audit of Black Sea fi sh and fi sh ucts will have the chance to enter the European more popular on other markets. We look forward products. market with higher purchasing ability, over $500 to continuing cooperation. Negotiations over As a result of their mission and recommenda- million, giving the sector the incentive to develop other products are also underway,” Herman tions, Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture created fi shing and the entire industry,” he added. stated. an action plan and made certain steps toward He went on to point to the next step: present- In 2014, the Georgian side presented an appli- bringing Georgian legislation closer to that of ing a list of business operators recognized by cation to the European Commission for the the EU, on the basis of which, Georgia has been Georgia who will be allowed to export Black Sea purpose of entering Georgia into the offi cial list added the list of third countries and the EU fi sh and fi sh products to the EU. of third countries. market is now open for Georgia’s Black Sea fi sh The EU ambassador noted that Georgia has made Inspectors of the Directorate General Health and fi sh products. important steps to get closer to EU standards. and Food Safety and Food and Veterinary offi ce Last year, Georgia was allowed to start honey “Export to the EU will defi nitely increase and of the European Commission visited Georgia in export to the EU market. GEORGIA TODAY 2 NEWS JUNE 23 - 26, 2017 Georgia Leads CIS Opposition, NGOs Criticize Countries in Global Ruling Party on Election System Cybersecurity Index 2017 BY THEA MORRISON he recent announcement of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party over moving to fully proportional elections from 2020 to 2024 Twas followed by harsh criticism from opposition parties and Non-Governmen- tal Organizations (NGOs). Georgia has a mixed electoral system through which voters can cast two ballots – one for a party in a nationwide vote, and another for a specifi c candidate in a respective single-member constituency. After the nationwide discussions and large-scale consensus over moving to wholly proportional elections, which was the main demand of the opposition, several days ago, the ruling party announced that the changes in the elec- tems in the military sphere,” the Global tion system would not take place until BY THEA MORRISON Cybersecurity Index 2017 reads. 2024. Instead, the GD offered to reduce after eight years, as with the election Georgia’s 12 leading NGOs issued a The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) the 5 percent threshold to 3 percent. system,” Roman Gotsiridze from the joint statement in which they condemn 2017 measures each nation's level of Parliamentary minority Movement for UNM stated. Georgian Dream’s decision about mov- eorgia is leading the top commitment to the ITU's Global Cyber- Freedom-European Georgia says that Both opposition parties, and also the ing to proportional elections after eight three ranked countries in security Agenda, with the aim of high- the ruling team “cheated” society and third parliamentary opposition the Alli- years. the Commonwealth of lighting potential areas for improvement the Venice Commission when they ance of Patriots of Georgia, have boy- “This decision is unacceptable and Independent States (CIS) and driving cybersecurity to the forefront refused to change the election system. cotted the process of discussions on the unfair…We positively assessed the intro- Global Cybersecurity of national plan “When GD was in opposition, they constitutional amendments in Parliament. duction of a proportional system and GIndex 2017, released by the International 134 Member States (including the State were the ones requesting the change to The ruling party, which has the con- this position was shared by the Venice Telecommunication Union (ITU). of Palestine) responded to the survey the current election system, now they stitutional majority with 116 MPs in a Commission,” the statement of NGOs In general, Georgia’s place is 8th on throughout 2016. are against doing it…The ruling party 150-seat legislative body, intends to dis- reads. the list, which means the country has The GCI revolves around the ITU Global promised us they would take into account cuss the amendments even without par- The NGOs claim that after four month’s improved its position by four steps- Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) and its fi ve the remarks of the Venice Commission ticipation of the opposition. work with the Constitutional Commis- Georgia was ranked 12th in the previous pillars: legal, technical, organizational, but they cheated us,” Giga Bokeria, one The leader of the parliamentary major- sion and Venice Commission, the “uni- edition, released in 2015. capacity building and cooperation. For of the leaders of the European Georgia, ity, Archil Talakvadze, underlined that lateral” decision of the ruling party to “Georgia is top ranked in the CIS. After each of these pillars, questions were stressed. Georgia will defi nitely have a propor- delay introducing the proportional elec- large-scale cyber-attacks on the country developed to assess commitment. Through Opposition party United National tional election system but not during the tion system is “inadequate.” in 2008, the government has strongly consultation with a group of experts, Movement (UNM) claims the ruling next elections. “Without the involvement of the inter- supported the protection of the country's these questions were weighed in order team acted based on its political inter- “Georgia will move to a more demo- ested sides and on the basis of their nar- information systems. The Information to arrive at an overall GCI score. ests. cratic electoral system and this will be row political interests, Georgian Dream Security Law established a Cyber Secu- The survey was administered through “We do not approve the package of reflected in the following elections changed the agreed decision to move to rity Bureau with a particular emphasis an online platform through which sup- amendments to the Constitution as most because we are ready to reduce the elec- proportional election system,” the state- on protecting critical information sys- porting evidence was also collected. of the changes will go into force only tion threshold,” Talakvadze said. ment reads. Georgia’s Justice Ministry Launches Website against Violence society about the legal changes to 20 Further, the Justice Ministry is to hold BY THEA MORRISON laws which protect human rights. It also meetings in educational institutions and gives information about what domestic organize trainings in justice houses and violence entails and how it can be stopped community centers throughout Georgia he Ministry of Justice of Geor- or prevented on time. It also contains through the year. gia has started a campaign violence statistics, news, videos, posters So far around 200 people have attended against violence, named and a hotline number for reporting inci- the trainings and in total 2500 persons ‘Imokmede’ and has launched dents of violence. are expected to be trained within the a special website imoqmede. Visitors to the page can easily join the campaign. Tge for those wishing to get involved in a campaign by pressing the button ‘Join’ “Domestic violence is not a perfor- large-scale campaign or to keep up-to-date and can can ask any relevant questions mance or fi lm…The State cannot just with the latest related information, statistics to an online consultant. They can also stand by and watch it indifferently,” Jus- or news about violence and its prevention. leave anonymous messages about inci- tice Minister Thea Tsulukiani stated at The aim of the website is to inform dents of violence. the presentation of the campaign. GEORGIA TODAY JUNE 23 - 26, 2017 NEWS 3 Carrefour & Wissol Group Georgia Form a Successful Partnership ajid Al Futtaim Retail, the retail pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. arm of Majid Al Futtaim, the lead- A remarkable business success story, Majid Al ing shopping mall, communities, Futtaim started from one man’s vision to transform retail and leisure pioneer across the face of shopping, entertainment and leisure to the Middle East, Africa and Asia, ‘create great moments for everyone, every day’.