EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński on Thursday said the EU leaders would consider different measures after the Georgian Parliament passed the draft Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence.
“All options mean all options, including possible suspension of the visa-free regime,” said Herczyński. “But from my point of view, this is not what should happen. But if it will happen or not, unfortunately, I’m not in a position to tell you. This is a decision that rests with the 27 EU member states.”
“As EU leaders have repeatedly said, in case the ‘law on foreign influence’ is adopted, there will be, unfortunately, the consequences for EU-Georgia relationship. To our regret, the law has been finally enacted. We have started an internal reflection among 27 member states about the consequences.
Member states have asked EU institutions to prepare the menu of different measures that can be introduced as consequences. As you have heard from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, all options are on the table. All options means precisely all options. Member states will reflect on different options.
I hope that on the 24th of June when foreign ministers will meet again in Luxembourg, they will be in a position to reach a decision [on] what options to implement. President of the European Council Charles Michel also announced that the upcoming Council, a few days later at the end of June, will also discuss Georgia.
So, I might expect that even the leaders will look into the options and then they will decide. On our side, what we want to achieve is clearly not to punish the citizens of Georgia,” the EU Ambassador asserted.
