Brussels, my love? Instability in Georgia overshadows EU enlargement

Our guests this week include Tinatin Akhvlediani, a research fellow with CEPS, Iliriana Gjoni, a research analyst with Carnegie Europe and Teona Lavrelashvili, policy expert at the Wilfried Martens Centre. 

The panel reflected on the outcome of parliamentary elections in Georgia that saw the pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream come first. Thousands took to the streets to protest what they said was a rigged vote.

“The country that wants to be an EU candidate should not hold these types of elections”, Teona Lavrelashvili told the panel.

“There was rigging on election day that nobody knows how to prove”, said Titatin Akhvlediani.

Spanish MEP Antonio López-Istúriz White, who was observing the elections with a group of other MEPs, said he was “shocked” to hear the Prime Minister inform him of a plan to ban the opposition after the elections.

“This is something that, as you might understand, for democrats is shocking”, he told Euronews.

Another major talking point in Brussels this week: EU enlargement reports published on Wednesday, a few days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s whistle-stop tour of the Western Balkans.

The reviews detail progress in the ten countries waiting to join the EU — and it seems the Commission is unlikely to recommend opening accession talks with Georgia any time soon.

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