MP Archil Gorduladze: Venice Commission has abandoned legal bounds to act as a purely political tool

“Regarding the Venice Commission, we can look to the stance of President Trump’s administration; they stepped away from relations with it altogether, calling it a waste of time. The commission’s goal is no longer to draft legal opinions; its reports offer nothing but political assessments,” Georgian Dream MP Archil Gorduladze has stated.

The MP maintained that the newest findings contain no genuine legal reasoning and serve merely as fodder for political speculation.

“This opinion claims that parliament failed to ensure stakeholder engagement, which is false, given that all committee meetings are open and anyone can attend. At the same time, it implies we should have consulted figures like ‘Captain’ Gigauri or Lomjaria. The Venice Commission has stooped to such absurdity that this document carries zero weight. It is being weaponised by the television stations controlled by the collective ‘National Movement’ and the so-called politicians and political hacks backing them,” Gorduladze insisted.

MP Gorduladze further asserted that evaluating a country’s domestic political environment falls outside the advisory panel’s formal remit.

“No one asks the Venice Commission to weigh in on the country’s political landscape. Their function is to provide a legal evaluation of specific bills or legislative packages. Yet they have pivoted directly to political commentary that mirrors claims made by the collective United National Movement and foreign-funded NGOs, such as Gigauri’s so-called Transparency International branch.

Their conclusion lacks any legal substance; instead, it is purely a convenient tool to be used as a political mechanism in the eyes of certain individuals. We know full well that such conclusions hold absolutely no value for Georgian society. This is regrettable, given that the Venice Commission enjoyed a high reputation in the past. We have collaborated with them on numerous occasions, but they have completely stepped outside the legal framework and their own mandate, transforming into nothing more than a political instrument,” said Gorduladze.

The Venice Commission issued an opinion evaluating several laws recently enacted by the Georgian Parliament, concluding that the legislative framework hinders party sovereignty and undermines the establishment and survival of a political opposition.