I will serve as a guarantee for the engagement of the opposition elected by the people and their participation. Such a statement made today Shalva Papuashvii, a new Speaker of the Parliament.

“I am the member of the Georgian Dream and thus, a medium of the will of the majority of our population. However, being the Speaker, I will be the guarantee of the engagement and participation of the opposition elected by the people, especially that despite the confrontations, the Parliament demonstrates a good experience of the cooperation with the opposition, which is related to successful electoral reform. Against this background, the boycott of the part of the opposition to the Parliamentary activity is disappointing, especially, when as a result of the reforming of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure by our team, the Parliament of Georgia has taken the central place in the Georgian politics. According to new democratic standards, the multi-party Parliament holds the powerful leverage for the oversight of the executive authority. We have unprecedentedly enhanced the role of the Parliamentary opposition and all these factors in aggregation create special conditions for the Parliamentary discussions.

Our main foreign political priority implies the NATO and EU integration. As you may know, our political team cherishes an ambitious task to submit the application for the EU membership in 2024 and thus, three upcoming years are going to be the period with a very busy legislative agenda to play a breakthrough role for our legal and institutional approximation to the EU and taking the country to a new benchmark of the democratic development. Our national task is to unify the country and return our Abkhazian and Ossetian brothers and sisters. And the full value of this Parliament can be gained only when this Hall will also be attended by the representatives elected from Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region. This is the task, which shall unify us all.

Our country is so special, with noble people and unique history, rich culture and the Church protecting our spiritual state. This country and people deserve integrity, welfare, progress and development and that’s why our special duty is to dedicate our deeds and words to this goal. It will stand as my primary goal on this position”, - added Shalva Papuashvili.