Georgian Parliament Speaker: rights-based segregation of countries would change nature of European Union - EU risks creating ‘first-class’ and ‘second-class’ nations

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday criticised discussions within the European Union about potentially limiting the voting rights of future member states, arguing that such a move would undermine the bloc’s founding principle of equality among member nations.

Papuashvili’s comments came in response to remarks by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos regarding potential limitations on the veto rights of future EU member states.

In a social media message, Papuashvili noted that the EU has historically been a rules-based project in which all members are equal before common regulations, arguing that proposals being discussed in Brussels would create a division between “first-class” and “second-class” member states.

He said that under such an arrangement, new members, including Georgia, would continue to assume obligations comparable to those of existing EU states while lacking equal rights in decision-making processes.

“Such an approach would mean that the European Union could make decisions on issues of vital importance to Georgia’s national interests without Georgia’s participation”, Papuashvili said.

He argued that the proposal would fundamentally alter the nature of the bloc, transforming it “from a union of equal nations into a union of “first-class” and “second-class” nations.

Papuashvili also stressed that the idea contradicted the EU’s longstanding commitment to equality among member states and warned that it would replace the principle of “unity in diversity” with a system that discourages differing views.

“The European Union has always been a rules-based project. Brussels’ idea of introducing legal segregation among countries radically changes this founding principle and turns it from a union of equal nations into a union of first-class and second-class nations”, he said.

The Speaker added that, if implemented, such a system would no longer resemble the European Union that Georgia applied to join four years ago, nor the model of integration envisioned in Article 78 of Georgia’s Constitution.

“Georgia already has 70 years of experience with a nominal and unequal union, and we have no intention of repeating it. If post-Soviet EU member states allow such a change, it implies that their issue was never with the Soviet Union itself, but simply with who dominates the union”, Papuashvili concluded.