MEP calls for EU to suspend visa-free travel for up to 2,000 Georgian officials
Wholose EU visa-free
At a briefing in Brussels, Nacho Sánchez Amor, the Socialists and Democrats’ coordinator on foreign affairs in the European Parliament, called for the suspension of visa-free travel for 1,000 to 2,000 Georgian officials and their family members. A few days earlier, Sánchez Amor had visited Georgia together with other members of his political group.
According to DW, the proposal may be based on a new EU mechanism that allows the suspension of visa-free travel in cases of human rights violations.
According to Sánchez Amor, imposing restrictions on just a few hundred senior officials would be merely a “cosmetic measure.” “No, they must feel the consequences — otherwise it won’t work. The new mechanism has to be effective, which means the measure must be substantial.
We want to convey this idea from the European Parliament to the European Commission: if we already have such a mechanism, it must be effective, and that requires a significant number of sanctioned individuals,” Sánchez Amor said.
He added that most of his colleagues in the European Parliament would likely support the initiative as a way to influence Georgia’s political elite and halt the country’s democratic backsliding.
Sánchez Amor also compared Georgia’s democratic decline to that of other authoritarian regimes, noting that “what took decades elsewhere has happened in Georgia in just two and a half years.”
He further criticised the ruling Georgian Dream party’s control over the media, its suppression of peaceful protests and pressure on NGOs, urging the European Commission to actively apply the conditionality mechanism that ties financial assistance to respect for the rule of law.
7 In October, the European Parliament approved new rules designed to make it easier to suspend visa liberalisation for citizens of third countries. The measure was supported by 518 MEPs, with 96 voting against and 24 abstaining.
Once the legislative changes take effect, the list of grounds for suspending visa-free travel will be expanded to include:
- A deterioration in the EU’s relations with a third country, particularly in the areas of human rights and fundamental freedoms, or serious violations of the UN Charter;
- A country’s visa policy no longer aligning with that of the EU.
The revised mechanism also introduces a new provision specifically aimed at Georgia, allowing the EU to suspend visa-free travel only for officials responsible for violations of fundamental rights and obligations in external relations.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, European diplomats say the adoption of the updated rules is largely linked to Georgia.
