Protests continue in Georgia against a bill that could seriously compromise the country’s access to the European Union.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Tbilisi on Friday to demonstrate against the adoption of the “law on foreign agents”. Such actions have been taking place in the country for several weeks.
The protest began near the Paragraph Hotel, where the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank was being held. Participants then headed to the nearby office of the ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party before returning to Rustaveli Avenue to reach the parliament building.
Some of these demonstrations were punctuated by confrontation with the police and repression, sometimes brutal, by the latter. Like the bill itself, police violence has been firmly condemned by European Union leaders.
On May 1, deputies adopted in second reading the bill “on the transparency of foreign influence”, opposed by President Salomé Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats, who consider it an obstacle to Georgia’s entry into the European Union. The US State Department said the bill aimed to undermine the country’s vibrant civil society. Leaders of the ruling partyGeorgian Dream – Democratic Georgia, say the law only serves to ensure transparency of foreign financing the non-governmental sector and the media.
According to the document, the media, non-governmental organizations and other non-profit organizations must register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their financing from abroad.
The opposition describes this law as “Russian” because Moscow uses a similar law against independent media and organizations critical of the Kremlin.
