PACE Monitors Visit Georgia

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee members Titus Corlăţean (Romania, SOC) and Claude Kern (France, ALDE) and Deputy Head of the Committee’s Secretariat Bas Klein are visiting Georgia on June 2-3, where they already held meetings with Parliament Speaker Kakha Kuchava and Legal Issues Committee Chair Anri Okhanashvili, among others.

At the meeting with Speaker Kuchava today, the sides discussed the implementation of the EU-brokered April 19 agreement, highlighting the importance of reflecting Venice Commission recommendations in electoral and judiciary reforms, the Parliament’s press service reported.

The PACE representatives confirmed on their part that the Assembly’s monitors will actively observe the upcoming local elections in Georgia, according to the same report.

Also on June 2, the PACE representatives met MP Anri Okhanashvili, Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, and Deputy Chairs Davit Matikashvili and Rati Ionatamishvili. MP Okhanashvili said they discussed reforms of the Administrative Offenses Code, adding “it is our aim for the tenth [current] convocation of the Parliament to adopt a new Code before Georgia officially applies for EU membership in 2024.”

The Monitoring Committee representatives also met today with the members of Georgian Parliament’s delegation to PACE, Georgian Dream MPs Irakli Chikovani, Givi Mikanadze, Tamar Taliashvili, Citizens MP Levan Ioseliani, and European Socialists MP Pridon Injia. The Georgian lawmakers informed them about “about end of the artificially created political crisis,” the Parliament’s press service reported.

Tomorrow the PACE monitors and the Deputy Head of Secretariat of the Monitoring Committee will meet Georgian Dream Chair and Parliamentary Majority Leader Irakli Kobakhidze, Chair of the Sectoral Economics and Economic Policy Committee Davit Songhulashvili, as well as opposition legislators from Lelo – Partnership for Georgia faction, and MPs Zurab Japaridze of Girchi – More Freedom, Giorgi Vashadze of Strategy Aghmashenebeli, Khatuna Samnidze of Republican Party, and independent lawmaker Davit Bakradze.

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