EU publishes 2025 report on human rights and democracy, which also touches upon Georgia

The EU has published its 2025 Human Rights and Democracy in the World report, which includes a section on Georgia.

In the section titled “Overview of the human rights and democracy situation”, the report states that “human rights were severely curtailed by repressive actions and laws that infringe upon fundamental rights, including equality and non-discrimination, the freedom of expression, assembly and association, as well as the right to privacy, family life, liberty and security”.

Furthermore, the report notes that “ill-treatment of protest participants by law enforcement forces, in some cases amounting to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, was widespread in 2025”.

“No perpetrators were held accountable, fostering an environment of impunity. Cases of arbitrary detentions, excessive use of pre-trial detention and the disproportionately harsh sentencing of protesters and journalists raise concerns about the right to a fair trial. Instances of physical assaults, sexual harassment, and threats of rape or death by law enforcement officials directed at women participating in demonstrations were reported.

The new legislation, including amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and the legislative package on Family Values and Protection of Minors, negatively affected the right to freedom of expression and the media’s ability to operate freely. Acts of intimidation, threats, verbal and physical assault, and arbitrary detentions against journalists and media workers were widely reported,” the report states.

According to the EU report, “the state of democracy in Georgia was marked by significant backsliding”.

“The Georgian authorities imposed repressive measures against civil society, media representatives and opposition leaders that severely undermine democratic decision-making and processes and effectively abolished civic participation and the system of checks and balances.

By freezing the bank accounts of several CSOs, the justice system was used by the authorities as a tool of repression and political persecution to deprive the organisations of essential financial resources and silence dissenting voices. Civil society and critical voices also faced intimidation, with hostile rhetoric, threats and violence becoming more prevalent.

Political pluralism has been at risk as the ruling party seeks a Constitutional Court ban on several opposition parties. The politically motivated persecution against civil society and arrests of opposition leaders went against basic democratic values,” the report highlights.

In addition, the report notes: “Georgia ranked 114th on the 2025 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, 52nd on the 2025 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index, 56th on Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, and received a score of 34/100, indicating repressed civic space, on the CIVICUS Monitor.

EU action – key focus areas:

The EU consistently urged the Georgian authorities to reverse the democratic backsliding, repeal repressive legislation, and adopt democratic, comprehensive and sustainable reforms, in line with the core principles of European integration and the nine steps set out for candidate status.

The EU called on the Georgian authorities to respect, protect and uphold the human rights of citizens, including the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and media freedom and pluralism, and to release those arbitrarily detained.

These calls were also reiterated by the EU Council Presidency in December 2025, noting that the actions taken by the Georgian authorities fall short of the EU’s expectations of a candidate country.

The EU continued to assess Georgia’s compliance with the visa liberalisation benchmarks. In December 2025, the Commission found that Georgia has further regressed in the areas of governance and fundamental rights and continues to be in breach of these benchmarks.

The Commission has launched the procedure under the new visa suspension mechanism to suspend the exemption from the visa requirement for nationals of Georgia holding diplomatic, service and official passports.

EU bilateral political engagement:

In June, October and December 2024, the European Council concluded that the Georgian government’s actions have de facto led to a halt of the pre-accession process. There was no political dialogue between the EU and Georgia in 2025 due to the continued serious democratic backsliding by the Georgian authorities. The EU continued to downgrade bilateral contacts. The EU-Georgia Human Rights Dialogue has not taken place since June 2023.

EU financial engagement:

As a result of the continued democratic backsliding, the EU continued to halt financial assistance directly benefiting Georgian authorities in 2025.

In response to the shrinking of civic space and the deterioration of the human rights situation, EUR 24 million has been contracted for civil society and independent media since October 2024 under NDICI bilateral and thematic funding.

Ongoing support focused on targeted support to CSOs and independent media, access to justice, rights of persons with disabilities, gender equality and combating gender-based violence, the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, child rights, the rights of LGBTI persons, confidence-building, and tackling disinformation, foreign interference and manipulation.

The EU continued to support the Public Defender’s Office to enhance the institutional capacities of the Ombudsman.

Georgian civil society, including human rights defenders, also benefits from increased support through the regional Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility with EUR 10 million allocated for 2025-2027 and from regional programmes supporting human rights, civil society and independent media.

The EU-Council of Europe ‘Partnership for Good Governance’ PGG III was continued with reduced activities focusing on combating hate speech.

Georgia continued to benefit from an EU co-funded project implemented by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice supporting modernisation of court management in Georgia.

Multilateral context:

Cooperation with the European Court of Human Rights and the implementation of its judgements is inadequate, and currently there are 45 cases under enhanced supervision by the Committee of Ministers.

The Georgian authorities did not invite an observation mission from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) in time to allow a meaningful observation of the municipal elections in October 2025.

Moreover, Georgia failed to address any of the important OSCE/ODIHR recommendations from previous elections.

Georgia remained an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) until the end of 2025.

Special Procedures of the HRC called on Georgia to investigate the use of excessive force by police during demonstrations.

While good cooperation in international fora is generally maintained, Georgia did not align with some international and EU initiatives,” the report states.