Visa liberalization is presented as strawberries, and they are offering us to exchange sovereignty for strawberries - Shalva Papuashvili
What we have seen is that, instead of important criteria for visa liberalization, political preconditions have been invented against Georgia, which directly violate the sovereignty of our country, - the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, told journalists.
According to him, on June 11, a "technical meeting will be held, not a political one."
"There is a mechanism provided for by the rules when there is an obligation to hold a technical-level meeting. Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formed a group that will participate. It is a technical meeting, not a political one. At the same time, we know the preconditions that were discussed. The discussion was that Georgia would join the sanctions imposed by the European Union, including against Russia. We say that we are not going to destroy our country and put it at risk of war. There was also a demand that Georgia abandon the requirement that foreigners spend money transparently and that the European Union continue to secretly finance the political agenda in Georgia, as it has been done so far by Brussels. As we said, this is impossible due to respect for our sovereignty. So, visa liberalization has its own procedures, preconditions. Unfortunately, what we have seen is that instead of important criteria for visa liberalization, political preconditions were invented and put forward for Georgia. Against, which directly violates the sovereignty of our country, to determine the agenda of its own state. So, as they say, sovereignty is not exchanged for strawberries,” said Shalva Papuashvili.
In addition, the Chairman of the Parliament noted that “visa liberalization is presented as strawberries, and they are offering us to exchange sovereignty for strawberries.”
"When they tell you that you should not have any complaints, that you should demand that Brussels disclose its own funding in order to have visa liberalization, this is precisely giving up sovereignty in exchange for strawberries. All the complaints that exist regarding Georgia's visa-free, sanctions-free, and legislative policy are internal state issues, that is, sovereignty issues. Visa liberalization is presented as strawberries, and they are offering us to exchange sovereignty for strawberries," Papuashvili said.