To the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili
On April 29, 2022, the Georgian government refused to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire made on behalf of the country. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the answers contain issues that are deemed not expedient to be made public.
Under Georgian law, public information may be kept confidential only if it is a professional, personal, commercial, or state secret.
Given the high public interest in Georgia’s accession to the European Union, we urge you to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire or to present an argument on the basis of which you make information confidential under Georgian law. In case the information provided to the EU truly contains professional, personal, commercial, or state secrets, the relevant parts should be encrypted and the rest should be made public, as required by the standards of Freedom of Information of Georgia and the EU.
According to the latest survey, 88% of the Georgian population supports the country’s accession to the European Union. With this in mind, the government should ensure the transparency, openness, and involvement of stakeholders in the process.
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