Opposition, NGOs insist on including foreign policy course in country’s Constitution

The opposition insists that Georgia’s NATO and Euro-Atlantic aspirations should be written down into the Constitution.

“We would like to have it clearly stated in the Constitution preamble that we are the member of the European family, i.e. we would like to join the EU and NATO; we will thus position our country to the world, showing everyone that this is our strategic, firm objective and it’s not a unique demand, there is such international practice,” said Elene Khoshtaria, a member of the European Georgia faction.

The Republican Party also shares this position. According to the party Chairperson, Khatuna Samnidze, the Republicans stood with the aforesaid initiative back in the parliament of previous convocation.

However, the parliamentary majority doesn’t share the opposition’s demand. Zakaria Kutsnashvili, the Georgian Dream member, claims that Georgia is western-oriented just because it respects the western values, rather than because it sees no other geographic opportunities for its development.

The Patriots Alliance also opposes the idea of including provisions on NATO and Euro-Atlantic aspirations in country’s Constitution. Ada Marshania, an individual leader of the Patriots’ Alliance party, made a statement in this regard. In her words, inclusion of any provisions on country’s membership in the military and political blocs is unacceptable.

Today, the Coalition for Euro-Atlantic Georgia released a special statement with regard to writing down provisions on NATO/EU aspirations into country’s constitutions. The statement was signed by 23 leading NGOs.

The Coalition has offered the Constitutional Commission a wording where country’s European and Euro-Atlantic course will be explicitly mentioned.