Georgia’s European path is a shared responsibility and the EU must play its part

Ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying, intimidation and violence are part of the electoral fraud allegations following the parliamentary elections held in Georgia, on October 26 and deplored by the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament.

During today’s plenary debate, requested by our political group on Georgia's worsening democratic crisis, we called for an independent investigation of the allegations related to the electoral process and on the EU to have an adequate response. Putting on hold Georgia’s integration into the EU, by freezing all funding provided to the government until the Moscow-style pieces of legislation are repealed, was necessary, but now we need to look beyond that.

Renew Europe MEP, Nathalie Loiseau (Horizons, France), who was part of the European Parliament's election observation delegations in Georgia, said:

“The Georgian people deserve more and deserve better, that is why we must not abandon them. Taking the streets every time their rights and freedoms are at risk, they demonstrate peacefully, waving European flags and Georgian flags.

Georgia’s fate will be the symbol either of our weakness and our unreliability, or of our righteousness and our determination.”