“The only thing that contradicts the values of the European Union is the secret funding of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) in Georgia,” stated Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker.

According to Papuashvili, the EU has not taken any action to address this issue.

“I’ve been talking about this for a year, including with representatives from the European Commission, embassies, and ambassadors, urging that it is contrary to EU values to secretly fund radical opposition and groups in another country using special services’ methods. We’ve agreed behind closed doors with several high-level representatives that the funding principles of the European Endowment for Democracy contradict these values for two reasons. Because it is secret and not transparent, and because our discussion on the substance revealed the political objectives behind the funding.

For instance, Droa is an example of aid money being directly converted into political money. When it comes to appeals from the EU representation, embassies, and other countries regarding values, if they truly value these principles, the only contradiction to European values in this whole situation is the secret funding of the European Endowment for Democracy in Georgia using special services’ methods, which should be stopped.

Various EU structures could address this, but unfortunately, they seem to prefer stirring up hysteria among the Georgian public, including by labelling this draft law as anti-European, rather than spending five minutes making the EED fund’s funding transparent. Why is EED’s funding being kept secret? It’s a straightforward question without a simple answer, as some actors prefer to obscure the situation in Georgia rather than disclose who, what, and why the EED and US National Endowment for Democracy are funding,” concluded Shalva Papuashvili.