
European Parliament faction backing Georgian Dream opposes Georgia's EU membership "out of respect for its sovereignty'
The political group Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) in the European Parliament, known for its pro–Georgian Dream rhetoric, has initiated an amendment to the draft resolution on Georgia, calling on the European Parliament to oppose Georgia's accession to the EU 'out of respect for the country's sovereignty.'
The amendment, submitted on behalf of ESN, was authored by Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík from the far-right Republic Movement, Sarah Knafo from Éric Zemmour's French Reconquête party, and Alexander Sell from Germany's Alternative for Germany. ESN includes 25 members and is a small political group.
On July 9, the European Parliament will vote on the resolution on Georgia.
The draft resolution states that the European Parliament does not recognize the 'Georgian Dream' government. It also calls for sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family, as well as government leaders and others responsible for democratic backsliding in the country.
The document also addresses pressure on civil society, persecution of opposition figures, and this year's local elections.
What amendments to the resolution did 'Europe of Sovereign Nations' propose
ESN recognizes the Georgian government's decision to suspend the EU accession process as a legitimate expression of national sovereignty in the face of foreign policy pressure.
ESN respects Georgia's reassessment of its strategic partnerships aimed at protecting the country's constitutional order and national interests.
ESN calls on the EU to respect Georgia's constitutional order and its right to independently determine how to implement the Association Agreement without prior political conditions.
ESN encourages the EU to reconsider its enlargement policy in light of recent developments in Georgia, suggesting a shift away from an automatic enlargement model toward strategic partnership agreements that respect sovereignty and the uniqueness of partner countries.
ESN respects the results of the parliamentary elections held in October 2024 and considers them a reflection of the democratic will of the Georgian people.
ESN acknowledges the need for Georgia to maintain pragmatic relations with neighboring states to safeguard regional stability and national interests.
News in Georgia
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The big emitters: which countries are holding back climate action and why?
This year will be the 30th UN climate summit – known as the conference of the parties (Cop) – and it is being held in Brazil. Every climate summit is crucial but Cop30 is taking place during extremely challenging times. The US has pulled out of the Paris agreement, under which the world's countries agreed to hold global temperature rises to 'well below' 2C above preindustrial levels while 'pursuing efforts' to limit heating to 1.5C. Israel has bombed Iran, one of the global oil superpowers, while the EU, one of the champions of climate action, has been beset on multiple fronts by member states and parties that want the bloc to row back on emissions rules and environmental regulations. So we thought it was a good time to take a look at the world's biggest emitting countries, and their plans – constructive or otherwise – for addressing their carbon emissions. Some are autocracies, some democracies tumbling towards rightwing populism, some are straining to hold together a consensus on climate action. We will be profiling each of the top 10 emitters – according to Global Carbon Budget – over the coming months, in the run-up to Cop30. To kick off the series, the Guardian's environment editor, Fiona Harvey, has interviewed some of the world's leading thinkers about how to negotiate with autocracies. We have also done a deep dive on Russia, 'the canary in the coalmine', according to one source. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In future weeks, we will cover South Korea, India, the United States, Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, and Indonesia – seeking a deeper understanding of how the pieces are going to fall in this crucial year for climate action.

South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
‘Alarm bells' over revamped farming scheme
Samuel Kurtz, the Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary, warned of broken trust over the heavily criticised and protest-plagued sustainable farming scheme. Ponting to a poll showing only three per cent of farmers trust Labour Welsh ministers, he said the industry waited more than seven years for clarity on replacements for EU subsidies. Mr Kurtz, who is from a farming family, criticised plans to cut the basic payment scheme (BPS) by 40 per cent for those who choose not to sign up to the SFS. He said: 'This reflects what would have happened had the SFS launched in 2025 but it didn't launch… so, now farmers are being punished for that failure.' He expressed concerns about the total £340m budget which would be worth closer to £500m if it had increased with inflation. He suggested the revised SFS prioritises tree planting over food security. Huw Irranca-Davies, Wales' deputy first minister, said: 'We've analysed the potential impacts of the scheme and that has helped us make the decisions that we've come to." He told the Senedd an impact assessment will be published in September.


Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
The irony of the Afghan resettlement scandal
If there is one wholesale conclusion to be drawn from the Afghan resettlement scheme scandal, it's that a problem we have today is not so much a profusion of 'misinformation' but rather the suppression of genuine information. In Britain now, it's not 'fake news' that causes widespread resentment and anger, but moves made by successive British governments to silence real news. Ever since the masses decided to vote against their overlords in Britain and America in 2016 in the EU referendum and US presidential election of that year, the elites have propagated the belief that an unintelligent populace has been vulnerable to 'misinformation'. This is the idea that the suggestible lower orders have only become persuaded by populism because they get their news from unreliable social media outlets. Notwithstanding that there are myriad, genuine reasons behind the populist turn of the past ten years, what indisputably generates current indignation and fury are efforts to withhold information from the public. The decision by the previous Conservative administration to allow thousands of Afghans into the country secretly, and then by the successive Labour government to cover it up, is but the latest in a long line of fateful decisions to withhold the truth from the people. Many became aware of this increasing inclination towards state secrecy during the last decade, as revelations of the grooming gangs scandal began to emerge. Not only did the extent of these horrors come fully to light in January this year, but so too did the lengths to which local authorities and police forces had gone to keep these crimes quiet. While their failure to act, out of fear of accusations of racism, became a further source of outrage, revelations made by Dominic Cummings last month that Whitehall officials wanted to go to court in 2011 to cover up the whole episode have heaped yet more disgrace upon the state. The cowardly and deceitful response to these crimes by those in charge – a response going right to the top – is as much remembered now as the crimes themselves. Yet dishonesty, evasiveness and an active determination to withhold facts seem to have become the norm among those in charge. This was made clear after the mass stabbing and murder of three girls in Southport last July, the chief suspect of which, the public was simply and repeatedly told, was 'from Cardiff'. Were we told this because the authorities didn't want to let it be known that the chief suspect, Axel Rudakubana, was born in the Welsh capital to Rwandan parents? Merseyside police and countless politicians knew shortly after the attack that he was in possession of terrorist material, but on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service, the public was not told. It was the failure to disclose this information, one borne perhaps from a fear that it might inflame anti-immigrant sentiment, that paradoxically fanned the flames of anger which led to the riots that actually followed. The online rumour mill had indeed gone into overdrive, but it did so because many people don't trust the government to tell them the truth about these matters anymore. The public had become especially driven to cynicism and disbelief following the Islamist attacks in Britain and Europe in the 2010s, after repeatedly being informed that the perpetrators had 'mental health issues' or other such mendacities. Yet still the authorities continue to make matters worse out of fear that the truth must not out, lest the easily-aroused hoi polloi fly into a rage. Elsewhere this week we've read that the Home Office has refused to share the location of asylum hotels with food delivery companies such as Deliveroo, citing 'safety concerns' for hotel occupants. And only yesterday the Daily Telegraph reported that ministers once more fear riots will break out in Britain following the disclosures of the Afghan resettlement debacle. There is indeed much anger in Britain today about immigration. Yet the anger has seldom been conspicuously directed towards the incomers themselves – the assaults against immigrants after Southport last year were remarkable because they were unusual. However, the ire has mostly and increasingly been aimed at the liberal overclass who first decided that large-scale immigration was a good idea – for ideological reasons and stemming from vested economic interests – and then have lied and continued to lie about its consequences. When the general public do voice their resentment at the ballot box, or via mainstream or social media, the elites then have the audacity to accuse the masses of being stupid or ill-informed. The ultimate irony of our situation today, one in which the smothering of information has become the norm and expectation, is that it feeds a genuinely counter-factual, conspiratorial mindset. The language of 'government cover-ups' is rapidly becoming common parlance. This is the direct fault of governmental deceit and dishonesty over actual facts.