On Thursday, November 7, in a sharp reminder to the Georgian authorities, the leaders of France, Germany and Poland solemnly called for "swift and transparent investigations" into "all complaints and reports of election-related irregularities" during the October 26 parliamentary elections, whose results are contested by the pro-European opposition.
"Unless Georgia reverses its current course of action and demonstrates tangible reform efforts ... , we will not be in a position to support the opening of [EU] accession negotiations with Georgia," said French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a joint statement. On October 30, the European Commission recommended against resuming accession talks with Georgia, which has been a candidate for EU membership since December 2023. The process had been frozen in June, following the adoption of repressive laws restricting civil society and the LGBT community.
The statement by the three leaders echoes that of the EU, which, the day after the election, also called for an independent inquiry. "Those irregularities must be clarified and addressed. That is a necessary step to re-building trust in the electoral process."
However, the EU does not intend to go any further and take a stance on the election's legitimacy. Georgia will indeed be on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council's meeting on November 18, but Brussels is "awaiting answers from the Georgian public authorities." "The European Union must have a clear position on recognizing the election results," said Amanda Paul of the European Political Center in Brussels. "However, reaching a common position will be complicated because unanimity is required, and given the position of Viktor Orban [the Hungarian prime minister], I'm not sure that an agreement can be reached among the 27 member states."
Once again, the member states are divided, and Hungary is an obstacle. Orban makes no secret of his ideological affinity with the leaders of Georgian Dream, the pro-Russian, authoritarian party in power since 2012. The day after the election, he rushed to Tbilisi to congratulate his Georgian counterpart, Irakli Kobakhidze, to whom he is close.
More broadly, the EU is torn between the need to maintain ties with the Georgian population – 80% of whom aspire to join the EU, according to opinion polls – and the risk of pushing the small Caucasian republic further into Moscow's orbit if relations with the ruling party continue to deteriorate. Thus, "it is a more realistic strategy to remain calm and avoid shaking things up too quickly," said an EU diplomat for whom "the toolbox of possible measures is still large."
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