Civil society organizations urge the Government to make EU questionnaire and answers public

12 Apr, 2022

To:

Olivér Várhelyi, EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement

Irakli Gharibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia

Copy:

Carl Hartzell, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia

 

On March 3, 2022, the Government of Georgia submitted an application to become a member of the European Union. On March 10, EU leaders asked the European Commission to present an opinion on Georgia’s application. On April 11, the European Commission handed over the membership questionnaire to the Georgian authorities.

We, the signatory organizations, believe that the EU integration process should be transparent and inclusive, and we consider the involvement of civil society particularly important in this process. We emphasize that civil society possesses valuable experience from using a similar questionnaire to assess the current state of the judiciary, human rights, and corruption in Georgia (Chapter 23 of the EU accession negotiations) (To view the document, visit: https://bit.ly/3vww2Zt).

With this in mind, we call on the Georgian government to publish the questionnaire and the answers provided, which will allow all interested actors to be involved in the process and contribute to Georgia’s European integration.

 

Signatory organizations:

  1. Open Society Foundation
  2. Partnership for Human Rights
  3. Democracy Index Sakartvelo
  4. Institute of Law and Policy Research
  5. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics
  6. Georgian Young Lawyers Association
  7. Rights Georgia
  8. Social Justice Centre
  9. Caucasus Open Space
  10. Center for Social Sciences
  11. Tolerance and Diversity Institute
  12. Union Sapari
  13. Penal Reform International
  14. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
  15. Prevention for Progress
  16. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information
  17. Transparency International Georgia
  18. Europe Foundation
  19. Tbilisi pride
  20. Georgian Democracy Initiative
  21. Coalition for Equality
  22. Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group
  23. Europe Foundation