President, CSOs and opposition groups continue criticizing the Government on the new transit deal with Gazprom, according to which, Georgia will partially maintain the commodity payment scheme in 2017 and move to full monetary reimbursement in 2018.
Eka Mishveladze, President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s press speaker, said on January 31 that the new agreement reached with Gazprom is “worse than the previous [agreement].” “The President has been pointing out since 2015 that in such difficult negotiations, entire state resources should have been mobilized, international partners should have been involved, so that the country would not stay face-to-face with such a serious institution as Gazprom,” Mishveladze stated.
She also added that in President Margvelashvili’s opinion, “minimizing damage was possible, but it did not happen for some reasons.” “And these reasons, need to be identified. Answers need to be given, including on the major question – why was the country’s position weakened in this strategically important field.”
Mishveladze stated that “finding answers” to these questions “should be in the interests of the Parliament of Georgia.” “But, we have not yet seen the Parliament’s vision – on how risks and threats will be avoided in similar circumstances, at least in the future. Therefore, we call on the Parliament to actively engage in the process, fulfil its constitutional duty and strengthen its oversight function,” Mishveladze added.
The newly-established Movement for Freedom – European Georgia has appealed for larger parliamentary engagement as well. According to MP Sergo Ratiani, the party proposed establishment of the inter-faction group, tasked to retrieve information “on commercial agreements in strategic areas and directions.” “The Government says that it does not have the right to disclose commercial details, but it cannot have arguments against MPs having access to documents on state security and economic issues,” Ratiani said on January 26.
The Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), which submitted an official request to the Energy Ministry on January 18 to disclose the previous and new agreements, received a response on January 25 stating that the requested information was not available at the Ministry. Sulkhan Saladze of GYLA, stated on January 31 that the organization would appeal to court for annulling the response, “with which, the Energy Ministry has practically refused to hand out the [official] information.”
UNM, which also insists on disclosing the agreement details, organized a rally on February 1. Earlier, UNM’s Levan Bezhashvili accused the Government of “reaching a sham deal” with Russia. “This Government does not care about the state’s existential interests, it has reached a sham deal with Russia. Therefore, we insist on disclosing the agreement details,” Bezhashvili stated.
Speaking on the matter, Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze stated that the Government responded “to all questions” regarding the agreement and added that the Georgian side alone would not be able to disclose the agreement details. “This is not up to the Georgian side to decide what details will be disclosed. This needs to be done based on a bilateral agreement and as I said, we are working in this respect,” Kaladze stated on January 30.
MP Roman Kakulia, chair of the Sectorial Economy and Economic Policy Committee said on January 30 that unilateral decision of Georgia to disclose the agreement details might have prompted its suspension. “Our team considered, that the negative ramifications, that might have followed [the disclosure] would be much more severe than the financial loss that we have incurred.”
The new agreement raised questions in President Giorgi Margvelashvili, opposition political parties and civil society organizations earlier as well.