Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze said that the values that once motivated Georgia to seek membership in the European Union are now being called into question.

The mayor made the statement in response to a question regarding remarks by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos about the possibility of new EU member states being deprived of their veto rights.

“The European Union was founded on values that motivated our desire to join it — justice, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. Today, however, all of these principles are being called into question.

The steps taken by the European bureaucracy and their statements do not reflect the Europe we aspired to join. Justice has been completely undermined — it has turned into a system of top-down judgment and finger-pointing. This kind of attitude is absolutely unacceptable. We have made many clarifications regarding this issue before,” said Kakha Kaladze.