Georgian Parliament Speaker claims EU treats Georgia as political tool in confrontation with Russia

Georgian Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday criticised Brussels while commenting on a newly published assessment on the resilience of the rule of law in EU candidate countries, claiming that facts and empirical analysis are no longer of interest to the European Union.

His remarks came after the publication of a study evaluating the resilience of the rule of law in EU candidate countries. According to the findings by the European Policy Institute, Georgia and Montenegro demonstrated the highest performance among candidate states, outperforming the remaining candidate countries included in the assessment.

Speaking to journalists, Papuashvili said he no longer understands “why researchers bother conducting studies or why we bother reading them”, arguing that Brussels ignores objective findings and instead follows political narratives.

“They already know that whatever Rasa Juknevičienė says is considered the truth - that’s it. We are living in a new era where they will call white black and expect everyone else to repeat it. Brussels says it has economic leverage and therefore can dictate narratives regardless of facts”, the speaker said.

He further argued that fair, fact-based dialogue with the EU no longer exists and accused Brussels of pursuing politically motivated agendas rather than objective analysis. The speaker also claimed that the EU’s current foreign policy leadership is increasingly influenced by what he referred to as the “Estonisation” of the European Union.

“This is ordinary power politics, which we see Brussels using more and more, especially under its current foreign policy leadership. This is precisely the Estonisation of the European Union - something that has even been discussed in the White House. But that’s fine; our citizens know the truth. We have won 10 elections, and we will win the 11th, the 12th, and so on, because the truth is on our side. But what else can we do? If we tell the EU ambassador that this is the case, he isn’t interested; for him, the authority lies in Rasa Juknevičienė's political plans and their implementation”, he continued.

Papuashvili added that there was no chance that today's Brussels would take any steps based on any objective analysis.

“Forget it; there is no chance that today's Brussels will take any step based on objective analysis. These are ordinary, coldly calculated political plans in which we are merely an instrument. They have no interest in Georgia. They have only one interest: how to damage Russia through us. We are nothing more than a weapon”, he concluded.