“Visa liberalisation had and continues to have specific preconditions, which Georgia has always met and continues to meet,” the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, told journalists.

According to Papuashvili, we are unfortunately witnessing the fabrication of political preconditions, such as dictating which laws Georgia should or should not pass.

“No one can explain what this has to do with visa liberalisation. For instance, they expect Georgia to permit covert funding from the European Union. I do not know what kind of rule dictates that, for the sake of the ‘strawberry’ called visa liberalisation, we must restrict our sovereignty and allow Brussels to finance political groups here covertly. Sovereignty is not to be bartered away for a handful of strawberries, as a Georgian saying goes. When they tell you that you must not demand transparency from Brussels regarding its funding to maintain visa liberalisation, that is precisely sacrificing sovereignty for a handful of strawberries,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.