Author: Vano Chkhikvadze, EU Integration Programme Manager at the Civil Society Foundation, specializing in EU-Georgian relations and advancing projects for Georgia’s European integration.
The EU’s decision to suspend visa-free travel for diplomatic and service passport holders while maintaining it for ordinary Georgian citizens is a step in the right direction. It sends a strong message: Georgian officials are no longer welcome in the EU, and their privileges are being stripped away. However, this should not be seen as the final step. Georgian Dream officials have mocked the sanctions, saying they will exploit the remaining loopholes. The EU must leave no room for them to sidestep the restrictions.
Diplomatic passport holders in Georgia have long enjoyed privileges denied to ordinary citizens. Since 2011, an agreement between the European Union and Georgia on visa facilitation allowed holders of diplomatic passports to travel to EU Member States without a visa for up to 90 days within 180 days. Georgian citizens with ordinary passports started to enjoy visa-free travel to EU and Schengen zone countries in 2017 – a privilege granted after Georgia met the Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) requirements.
The Foreign Affairs Council’s decision to suspend the visa-free regime for diplomatic passport holders reverses this dynamic, putting ordinary citizens in a more favorable position than the elites and those closely tied to the Georgian Dream government. This sends a strong political message about GD’s crackdown on freedoms and its reversal of EU accession.
However, as it stands, the European Commission’s approach focuses on targeting diplomatic and service passports as categories rather than targeting specific individuals responsible for Georgia’s democratic backsliding. Several hundred individuals qualify for diplomatic and service passports under the Georgian system, including diplomats as well as the Ministries of Defense, Internal Affairs, and Security Service.
A key issue is Georgian officials’ dual-passport privilege. Most diplomatic passport holders also possess ordinary passports, which they can use to travel visa-free to EU and Schengen zone countries. Allowing this loophole to persist would undermine the EU’s credibility and signal a lack of resolve. To demonstrate seriousness, the EU must ensure its measures leave no room for Georgian officials to sidestep the restrictions.
To close these gaps and assert itself as a global actor committed to the rules-based international order, the EU should do more. Through its delegation, Member State embassies, and local partners, it should gather personal data on diplomatic passport holders and compile a list of individuals to restrict from entering the EU and Schengen zone—even with ordinary passports. By adding these individuals to the Schengen Information System (SIS)—which contains biometric data such as photographs, fingerprints, and palm prints—the EU could ensure that those undermining Georgia’s democracy are effectively barred from entering.
Without such measures, Georgian Dream officials will continue to mock the EU’s actions as “toothless,” exploiting visa-free travel while disregarding the consequences of their anti-democratic actions. To uphold its credibility and values, the EU must go beyond symbolism and make its decisions impactful and enforceable.
Source: This Op-ed published on www.civil.ge is based on an article published in GEOpolitics, a leading source of analysis on foreign policy issues that relate to Georgia.
