People’s Power Macharashvili: Amendments to Law on Grants serve to defend national interests, sovereignty

“Amendments to the Law on Grants serve to defend national interests and sovereignty. Foreign Money should not participate in Georgian politics,” Guram Macharashvili, Executive Secretary of the People’s Power party, told the GPB’s First Channel.

According to Macharashvili, if the U.S. and Europe need to defend themselves from foreign influence, Georgia necessitates it even more in a world full of challenges.

He further stated that tightening the law serves the purpose of what the American President called on small countries to do: to protect and put their national interests at the forefront.

“The amendments serve to protect national interests and sovereignty so that foreign money does not participate in Georgian politics. The need is evidenced by the Georgian NGOs registered in the Baltics, in factories, and plants, which they cannot even deny. Some say that this and that building is more reconstructed and repaired than presented by Shalva Papuashvili, but saying it still was a factory where they were registered. A direct struggle is underway. We have an obligation to ensure that the law protects sovereignty,” he said.

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party initiated several legislative changes. One of the changes concerns amendments to the Law on Grants, which establishes criminal liability and also makes external lobbying punishable.