European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Expansion Oliver Varhel considers the Georgian Prime Minister’s statement out of context. Irakli Kobakhidze said earlier that one of the European commissioners threatened him during the telephone conversation. Irakli Kobakhidze claims that “one of the European Commissioners” listed a number of measures that Western politicians could take after overcoming the veto on the “foreign agents” law and, listing these measures, noted: “You see what happened with (Slovak Prime Minister) Fico and you have to be very careful.”
For his part, Oliver Varheli noted that in the current political situation in Georgia, he is making significant efforts to convince the political leadership of Georgia not to adopt the controversial law, “which can disrupt Georgia’s path to the EU”.
“Fully aware of the very strong pro-European sentiments in the Georgian society, during the telephone conversation I considered it necessary to draw the prime minister’s attention to how important it is not to aggravate the already unstable situation with the adoption of this law, which may lead to further polarization and possible uncontrollable situations on the streets of Tbilisi. In this regard, the recent tragic event in Slovakia was cited as an example of what such a high level of polarization in society can lead to, even in Europe.”
Not only was part of the phone conversation completely taken out of context, Varheli continued, but it was presented to the public “in a way that could lead to a complete misinterpretation of the original purpose of the phone conversation.”
The European Commissioner states that he calls on the Georgian authorities not to adopt the law on “foreign agents” and continues to support Georgians who aspire to a European future.
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