“Georgia has no intention of repeating 70 years of unequal union membership” - Georgian Parliament Speaker warns against ‘second-class’ EU membership for future members

Georgia already has 70 years of experience with nominal and unequal union membership, which we have no intention of repeating, said on Tuesday the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

Papuashvili responded to the statement of the European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos regarding potential limitations on the veto rights of future EU member states.

“Yesterday, the European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos noted that an idea is being considered within the EU according to which future members would not hold the same voting rights as current members. At the same time, this also implies that upon transitioning to the membership stage, Georgia, like other new member states, would still carry obligations similar to those of other EU members, yet would not be their equal in terms of rights. In practice, this means that the EU would be able to make decisions on matters of vital importance to Georgia’s national interests without Georgia's involvement”, the Speaker said in a social media message.

“At a moment like this, many will likely recall the phrase frequently repeated by Brussels: ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’. The idea being discussed within the EU is precisely the reversal of this approach - not only toward Ukraine, but toward all candidate countries. The Ukrainians saw this clearly as well and stated that they would not accept second-class membership.
Such trends demonstrate that the EU’s poster phrase, ‘Unity in Diversity’, is increasingly being replaced in practice by the slogan, ‘Do not deviate from the general line’. This implies that you will only be admitted to the club if your voice serves a purely decorative function. Indeed, such an approach would simplify decision-making even further: there would no longer be a need for difficult discussions, differing positions, or the aspect of democracy that entails dissent”, he continued.

The Speaker further stressed that the European Union has always been a rules-based project, which implies that all members are equal before these rules.

“Brussels’ idea to subject countries to a segregation of rights radically alters this foundational principle of the EU, transforming it from a union of equal nations into a union of ‘first-class’ and ‘second-class’ nations. Therefore, one thing must be stated clearly right here: if this idea is implemented, it will no longer be the union that Georgia applied to join four years ago, nor is striving toward such a union what is written in Article 78 of the Constitution of Georgia. Georgia already has 70 years of experience with nominal and unequal union membership, which we have no intention of repeating. If post-Soviet EU member states allow such a change, it would mean that their issue was not with the Soviet Union itself, but rather with who dominates such a union”, Papuashvili concluded.