MP Kadagishvili: Shift in EU values strips smaller states of the core appeal of joining the bloc

“A shift in the values of the European Union is taking place. Framing the issue in this way means that, in substance, we will be dealing with an entirely different European Union from the one Georgia took steps towards joining,” the Chairman of the Committee on Regional Policy and Self-Government of the Parliament of Georgia, MP Irakli Kadagishvili, has said.

Kadagishvili was asked about a German initiative to abolish the rule of consensus-based decision-making in the EU.

“From what the statements suggest, the issue stands as follows: if a new country is admitted to the EU, it should not have the right of veto over EU decisions concerning finance, migration policy, and so on. The best example of this was Hungary, which is precisely why they went after Orbán. Within the EU itself, there is already talk that decisions cannot continue to be made by consensus. There will be designated issues here too, on which decisions should no longer be made by consensus.

In other words, the large countries automatically become dominant; they set the rules of the game. They are dominant even now, but if things go this way, they will become dominant in a legal sense as well. Small countries are being stripped of the very appeal that makes joining the EU worthwhile in the first place. Your voice is supposed to carry equal weight alongside that of the large countries.

If that slips out of your hands, then you become an object of manipulation, and your sovereignty is already lost. Large unions are not simple constructions. Building the Tower of Babel has never been a successful undertaking; people, nations, and countries all have their own distinct interests. Levelling out these interests is inconceivable.

Accordingly, sooner or later, when a crisis arises, national interests come to the fore, and the interests of a small country become an obstacle to the pursuit of a global player’s goals. It is precisely because of economic and geopolitical crises that this issue has become so pressing,” Irakli Kadagishvili stated.