Speaker: Brussels is trying to harm Georgia in every way; we will continue bilateral visits to EU member states to act in our people’s interest

“Kaja Kallas presumes to instruct countries on whom to befriend and whom not to, whom to speak with and whom not to and then EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński takes offence, asking why we compare them to the Soviet Union. Let them stop acting like the Soviet Union, and no one will make any comparisons,” Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili stated.

He added that any European Union member state that respects its own sovereignty allows no one, including Kallas and her office, to hand down directives and instructions.

“When we speak about Kaja Kallas, we must not forget that she is, in effect, the European Union’s foreign minister. Naturally, those very offices send direct instructions to European capitals telling them to avoid contact with Georgia. That once again mirrors the methods of Soviet Moscow.

Ms Kallas, who was born and raised in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, in a family of the Soviet nomenklatura, may verbally renounce the Soviet Union, yet what she carried over from it is a Soviet mindset, allowing her to issue instructions to countries, parliaments, and popularly elected bodies on whom to befriend and whom not to, whom to speak with and whom not to. Mr Herczyński then takes offence, asking why we compare them to the Soviet Union. Let them stop behaving like the Soviet Union, and no one will make any comparisons. They provoke these parallels among people who genuinely lived through the Soviet Union. It is shameful when the Brussels bureaucracy acts this way, presuming to give such orders to independent states.

Any EU member state that respects its sovereignty permits no one, including Kaja Kallas and her office, to hand down directives and instructions the way Soviet Moscow used to issue them to the republics. Our decision to prioritise bilateral relations has proven right, because Brussels is trying to damage Georgia in every possible way: economically, politically, and socially. Today, Brussels and its embassy are attempting precisely that. We see their actions aimed at harming our country and people by any means, including undermining our bilateral relations with EU member states.

Brussels has halted Georgia’s EU integration. We understand they want to inflict as much damage as possible on Georgia’s integration process and boycott it, but why are they sabotaging bilateral relations? Trying to commit such malice at this level, seeking to wreck a country’s bilateral ties with other nations, is already somewhat worse than Soviet Moscow. Let me remind you that our relations with EU member states do not exist solely within the EU framework. That is not how they began; they started as bilateral relationships and have lasted for three decades, more intensely in some cases, less so in others, but everywhere in a spirit of partnership and friendship. We are committed to preserving these ties. The path we have chosen has proven right, and we will continue these bilateral visits to EU member states to act for the benefit of our peoples,” Papuashvili said.