Most of the EU member states do not support the decision to suspend the visa-free regime for Georgia. This was announced by the EU Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski at a conference organized by the Center for Security, Politics and Nationalism Studies of the University of Georgia. This is how he commented on the statement by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk that his government is working with EU member states on this initiative.
“We do not want ordinary people to pay the price for the decisions, actions and legislation adopted by the Georgian government. Therefore, at this stage, we have decided to suspend the visa-free regime only for holders of diplomatic and service passports,” Herczynski emphasized.
According to him, the EU member states have long been discussing the appropriate response of the European Union to the situation in Tbilisi, and the statement by the Polish Prime Minister expresses another opinion. Most EU member states are currently against changing the visa regime for Georgia, as this will create problems not so much for the government as for the citizens of the country, Gerchinsky noted.
The speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, also responded to Donald Tusk's statement, assessing it as "using other people as a political tool."
"Prime Minister Tusk had a vote of confidence in the Polish parliament, and since he had a guarantee of several more votes, the Georgian people and the Georgian community were used for political purposes and an attempt to take a conservative line. This once again shows how easily the Georgian people are sacrificed for political interests. Pointing out that Georgians are doing something wrong in Poland, or that there are many of them, etc. is not serious. You can look at the statistics, including the behavior of foreign migrants in Poland, and among them you will see a country neighboring Poland, which is statistically larger in terms of numbers and various violations," Shalva Papuashvili shared his conclusions.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, in turn, interpreted the initiative to cancel the visa-free regime for Georgia as blackmail and threats, noting that this does not have the best effect on the image of the European bureaucracy in Georgia.
In January, the European Union suspended the visa-free regime for holders of Georgian diplomatic passports. This decision was not supported by only two EU member states - Slovakia and Hungary. The Georgian authorities predictably called this measure politically motivated.
