Deputy Speaker: Developments in Europe confirm Transparency Law was necessary

Georgian Parliament Deputy Speaker Giorgi Kakhiani said European countries have only now begun discussing foreign funding for non-governmental organizations involved in protest-related activities, while making opposing statements when similar issues arose in Georgia.

According to Kakhiani, these developments further demonstrate that Georgia’s Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence was justified.

“We can once again draw parallels. When we said that processes in Georgia were funded from abroad and that foreign-funded non-governmental organizations were involved in these activities, we heard European countries claim that this was not the case. Now everything is coming back to them like a boomerang.

“The same or similar processes, funded from abroad by these countries, are unfolding in Europe, and they have now begun discussing the fact that non-governmental organizations receive funding from foreign sources, and so on. This once again shows that the legislation we adopted at the time — the Transparency Law — was justified and served the country’s national interests,” Kakhiani said.

For context, foreign media reported that five organizations and trade unions involved in supporting and organizing protests in France and Italy had received funding from the European Union.