David Bakradze, former State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and now the Ambassador to the UN, provides testimony at the session of the Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission. He talked about the events surrounding Georgia’s path toward visa liberalisation with the EU.

He accused members of the opposition United National Movement [UNM] of lobbying against Georgia’s bid for visa-free travel with the European Union.

“While preparing for the 2015 Association Council, our main priority became clear. By then, Georgia had already carried out all the necessary reforms. Our primary goal was visa liberalisation. We worked on this, implemented the reforms, and presented them at the Association Council, where these issues were fully discussed. It was on our agenda to secure a positive conclusion at the European Commission session scheduled for December.

During this time, our Government was engaged in high-level meetings with EU officials, members of the European Parliament, and policy experts, all to secure support for the visa-free regime. The UNM representatives were simultaneously traveling across Europe, lobbying against granting visa-free travel to Georgia.

At every such meeting - whether with MEPs, Commission bureaucrats, or experts - it was openly stated that it was completely incomprehensible and inexplicable how, at that time, a leading opposition party, which claimed to support Georgia’s pro-European path, would undermine such an important decision for the country’s citizens purely for its own political goals.

European diplomats fully understand partisan rivalries - this is a natural process, and opposition is generally viewed as part of institutional democracy and an important player in processes that are a priority for the state. European integration is the geopolitical choice of our people. They could not hide their surprise and indignation over the fact that the fight against the Government had, to some extent, turned into a fight against the state and the people themselves”, - said David Bakradze.