EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell said he declined the invitation to attend the hearings of judicial candidates in the parliament since the process is not in line with the April 19 Agreement.

“We have been invited to observe today’s and tomorrow’s hearings in parliament. We have declined for the simple reason that this is still part of the process that we have commented on since April and in July, where we have concerns about the fact that it’s neither in line with the April 19 Agreement nor with the conditionality that was set up for EU macro-financial assistance. There are shortcomings concerning the legislation not being fully in line with the Venice commission advice. And we’ve also seen the assessment from ODIHR about the process of nomination of judges themselves.

So we will remain on this line. We still think that first in this process what should be done to revise the procedures before taking further action. Obviously, it is now in the parliament, it is for the parliament of Georgia, it’s for the parliamentarians themselves now to judge the situation and take it appropriately,” EU Ambassador said.

Judicial reform was part of the EU-brokered April 19 Agreement reached among Georgian parties to end the political crisis in Georgia. The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party annulled the agreement in July 2021, claiming it “served its mission and exhausted itself.”