Georgian Parliament Speaker says EU leadership’s policies have driven Union into “deep, ever growing, systematic crisis”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday issued a sharply worded statement criticising the leadership of the European Union, accusing Brussels of “values backsliding” and ignoring what he described as core European principles.

In a social media message, Papuashvili noted that political change within EU institutions was “imminent” and argued that concerns he and other Georgian officials have voiced in recent years are now “affirmed” and “amplified” by the United States.

“Political change is imminent in Brussels. What we have been saying about Brussels’ values backsliding is now affirmed, vindicated, and amplified by the United States - the main guarantor of the European Union’s stability and security. Indeed, without a dramatic political change, the EU is likely to succumb to the ‘civilisational erasure’, as stated in the latest US Security Strategy document”, the Speaker said.

“This civilisational abyss is, primarily, about the core European values that the EU bureaucracy chose to ignore. Nowhere is this neglect of values more visible, blatant, and damaging as in the EU's approach to Georgia in the last few years. Support for violence, attempts at ‘regime change’, disregard for national sovereignty, choice of foreign funded NGOs over the will of the Georgian people, preference of conflict over peace and stability, irreverence to the majority rule in favor of a diktat by political minority have been the trademarks of EU’s damaging approach to Georgia”, he continued.

Papuashvili further argued that EU leadership was presiding over what he called a “systematic crisis”, citing Europe’s economic challenges, internal political divisions, and what he referred to as a “corruption scandal in Ukraine”.

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“The irresponsible policy of the EU's current leadership led the Union to a deep, ever growing, and systematic crisis, causing unprecedented weakness in the standing of the European Union in global geopolitics. Brussels has become virtually isolated in its ideologically driven foreign policy, now further tarnished with the gigantic corruption scandal in Ukraine. Suppressed free speech in the name of freedom of expression confused not only large parts of Europe’s population but the rest of the world as well. The reduced growth numbers of European economies led to the public disillusionment with national governments. Most importantly, the EU bureaucracy's myopic stance on European values brought about the crisis in Europe’s cultural identity, nurturing an ever-growing preference for traditionalistic and patriotic political forces to take over national governments.”, he noted.

The Speaker expressed regret that Brussels’ response to the crisis seemed to be “denial, not action”.

“Unfortunately, Brussels’ response to the crisis seems to be denial, not action. The most recent statement by the EU’s High Representative for foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas shows clearly that the European Union does not fully realize the extent of its civilizational crisis, risking to remain European in name only. Europe must now realize to whom the bell tolls as the United States alerted, more than loudly, the peoples of Europe about the abyss ahead. As it is obvious that the current European leadership has gone astray from the interests of the people of Europe, now they should get back to their duty of reflecting the will of the people, thus returning the spirit of democracy to the EU. We care about Europe whole and free and at peace - not divided, contorted, and at war with itself”, he concluded.