Georgian Parliament Speaker slams EU ultimatums to candidate countries

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the EU’s foreign policy had become so “unqualified” that statements by European officials could no longer be taken seriously, criticising European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos for calling on EU candidate countries to sever ties with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

Papuashvili said the EU was attempting to issue direct ultimatums to sovereign candidate countries over their foreign policy and relations with other states.

“EU foreign policy, including its enlargement policy, has become so unqualified that we can no longer take the statements we hear in this regard seriously. When the Commissioner for Enlargement publicly says that they should not have relations with the US administration, and MAGA is nothing other than the main pillar of Trump’s political movement and philosophy, how can we take anything seriously after that?” Papuashvili said.

He added that Kos’ statement should also be viewed in the context of what he described as an alleged attempt to interfere in Serbia’s elections.

“This has another context as well, which we should take into account. This statement was made particularly with Serbia in mind. A conference is due to be held there soon, including with the participation of this movement, while elections are scheduled to take place in Serbia in October. This is also a signal and an attempt to interfere in the elections”, the Speaker said.

Papuashvili said recent statements concerning the death of a Serbian citizen who had been serving a sentence for various crimes committed in Serbia in the 1990s were part of the same context.

“But Brussels did not like the fact that certain groups in Serbian society had a positive attitude toward him, and this was immediately followed by ultimatums”, he said.

Papuashvili said all these developments amounted to an attempt to interfere in Serbia’s elections.

“They are looking for pretexts - whether it is how the funeral ceremony of a former official was conducted, whether there will be relations with MAGA, or whether a conference will be held. This is direct interference in the elections of a candidate country”, he noted.

“I am sure this will be followed by other issues. Let us watch and we will clearly see Brussels’ attempts to interfere in Serbia’s elections, just as such attempts were made in Georgia’s elections”, Papuashvili continued.

The Speaker said the developments demonstrated what he described as a contradiction between Brussels’ actions and European values, arguing that respect for another country’s sovereignty and the sovereign choice of its people should be among those values.

“Today’s Brussels is directly trampling on this principle by interfering in elections”, he continued.

“The 2024 elections are the best example of this. They interfered in Georgia’s elections using exactly the methods they themselves like to describe as ‘Russian methods’. Since then, we have seen interference not only in the elections of candidate countries, but also in those of member states, as well as pressure to overturn election results in various countries”, Papuashvili concluded.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said that EU candidate countries should sever ties with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in order to join the European Union.