Parliament members are expected to vote on May 28 to override President Salome Zurabishvili's May 18 veto of the “foreign agents” law.
MPs can override the presidential veto with a majority of votes, which the ruling pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party has enough.
The legal committee meeting was held amid a protest outside the parliament building.
Let us remind that Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the law on “foreign agents” on May 18. In her remarks to the document the President added only one article according to which the law will be in force only one day after its entry into force and will lose its force on the second day. Before that, Salome Zurabishvili said that she would not hold “false, artificial, false negotiations” with the authorities by vetoing the law.
“This law in its essence, in its spirit is a Russian law that contradicts our Constitution and all European standards and thus represents an obstacle on our European path,” Zurabishvili said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the European Union may within a day reconsider relations with Georgia and close its further path to the EU if Georgia adopts the scandalous law on “foreign agents.”
“I hope there will be a very clear signal from the EU, if the law is passed in its final version, Georgia will no longer be able to continue on the EU path. Basically, there will be a decision on candidate status, which was granted with certain conditions, but they were not fulfilled. This means that the candidate status no longer exists. Candidate status can be suspended. This is politically possible, as it is still a political concept,” the Lithuanian foreign minister said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that she was “incredibly hurt” by the Georgian government's decision to “block the dream” of joining the EU with the foreign agents bill. Earlier it was reported that the European Commission would not confirm Georgia's status as a candidate for EU accession in October if the draft law on foreign agents is adopted.
