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:
- Open Society Foundation
- Partnership for Human Rights
- Democracy Index Sakartvelo
- Institute of Law and Policy Research
- The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics
- Georgian Young Lawyers Association
- Rights Georgia
- Social Justice Centre
- Caucasus Open Space
- Center for Social Sciences
- Tolerance and Diversity Institute
- Union Sapari
- Penal Reform International
- International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
- Prevention for Progress
- Institute for Development of Freedom of Information
- Transparency International Georgia
- Europe Foundation
- Tbilisi pride
- Georgian Democracy Initiative
- Coalition for Equality
- Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group
- Europe Foundation