Papuashvili: Everyone now acknowledges that foreign interference requires regulation and international standards

“Today, rhetoric aside, everyone acknowledges that foreign interference requires regulation and that an international standard must be established for such regulations; the pioneering groundwork laid by Georgia with our transparency law is a path we now see many others walking down,” Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told journalists during his visit to Rome.

According to Papuashvili, one of the central themes of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament of Council of Europe Member States is hybrid threats, where the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament will deliver an address.

“The European Conference of Presidents of Parliament of Council of Europe Member States opened today, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this conference, where, in addition to the topics covered by the summit, we will also have the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with colleagues.

Regarding the conference itself, the first theme is hybrid threats, a topic which I will also address. However, looking at the overarching sentiment of the speakers so far, everyone is echoing our views. The President of the French National Assembly delivered one of the keynote presentations and spoke verbatim about the very issues we have been raising. Specifically, what constitutes foreign information manipulation and interference, and how they protect themselves through legislation. In fact, she explicitly referenced the same legislation we have repeatedly pointed to, which France enacted in 2024 just weeks after we passed our own transparency law.

Consequently, our positions totally align on this matter. On the other hand, when criticism is levelled against Georgia, it becomes obvious that a blatant double standard is being applied. When it affects them directly, certain nations believe that informational resilience is worth defending, and their country must be shielded from disinformation and external interference. Yet when it concerns others, in this case Georgia, they prefer to maintain a completely different standard. In any event, I am pleased by one thing: today, in words at least, everyone acknowledges that foreign interference requires regulation and that a global standard must be established. Ultimately, the pioneering groundwork laid by Georgia with our transparency law is a path we now see many others walking down. We are confident that Georgia’s experience will serve as one of the foundational stones for creating an international standard for the transparency of foreign funding and interference,” Papuashvili stated.