Venice Commission Says Adopt Recommendations & more–12th Oct 2023

Gamarjobat from Sant Gervasi! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 12th of October twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Monday the 9th, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued a follow-up opinion on Georgia's Organic Law on Common Courts. This Law defines the system and organization of common courts of Georgia, the legal status of judges, a procedure for their recruitment, appointment, and discharge, and also guarantees their social and legal protection.

The Commission welcomed some amendments but noted that the authorities have not addressed previous recommendations. Namely, the Commission urged the authorities to pursue a comprehensive reform of the High Council of Justice, a supreme oversight body in charge of regulating the judiciary, which is necessary to address extremely well founded allegations of lack of integrity. The Commission said that “minor or technical amendments to the law would not meet this recommendation,” adding that the reform process should be thorough and inclusive, involving all the relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental actors. Other key recommendations included circumscribing the broad powers of the High Council of Justice when transferring judges, revising the procedure for suspending judges, and enhancing the binding nature of Supreme Court decisions. The opposition criticized the Georgian Dream or Otsneba for not adhering to the Venice Commission's recommendations, which will likely affect the EU's decision on Georgia's EU membership candidate status.

Speaking of laws, here’s an update on the Law on Assemblies and Manifestations.

Last week, we talked about the amendments to the law that prohibit setting up temporary structures during Parliamentary sessions. Non-compliance can lead to fines, imprisonment, and gatherings. On Thursday, the 5th, In response to the amendments, activists protested outside the Parliament, urging the President to veto the legislation. The Public Defender said that the amendments were a violation of the right to freedom of expression. According to the Administration of the President, Salome Zourabichvili will veto the law as she vowed to reject any resolution that goes against democracy and EU values.

On to international affairs, on Sunday the 8th, Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani President, visited Tbilisi and met with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili to discuss strategic collaboration in energy, transport, and logistics. They emphasized ongoing projects like railroad modernization, the Anaklia Port construction, global security concerns, and prospects for a peace treaty with Armenia. President Aliyev talked about trilateral cooperation involving Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. No formal mention of the fact that the Azeri army just retook Karabakh and created over a hundred thousand Armenian refugees. But we’re guessing it came up.

On Thursday, the 5th, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili attended the European Political Community Summit in Granada. He talked about Georgia's progress towards meeting the conditions for EU candidacy. According to the government's press release, Prime Minister Garibashvili emphasized the importance of granting Georgia candidate status by the end of this year which is extremely unlikely to happen. Having real business to attend to, no EU leaders had any substantive meetings with him. Although some expressed vague support for Georgia's eventual EU membership they all demanded that Georgia fulfill the twelve conditions. Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister who every leader in the EU hates and who is the leader Gharibashvili has the closest relations with, said that Georgia should have been granted candidate status already. All the public statements by EU leaders talked about the candidacy of Ukraine and Moldova. Georgia, and Gharibashvili, were ignored.

On Saturday the 7th, Georgian senior officials, the President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, condemned the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and expressed full support for the State of Israel. President Salome Zourabichvili said that the private Georgian airline company, Georgian Airways, needs to take social responsibility and help its citizens in Israel return home safely —instead of creating additional barriers and artificially increasing prices for flights for people in desperate situations. Lasha Zhvania, Georgia's ambassador to Israel, said that different aviation companies operated five flights from Israel to Georgia. He also said there are no casualties among Georgians and that the embassy hotline works twenty-four hours in case Georgian citizens need help.

Now, the United National Movement's integrity problems.

On Saturday the 7th, Nika Melia, former chairman of the National Movement, or Natsebi, stated that the injustice, immorality, and lack of values that informal leaders promote, have split the party. He mentioned that informal governance within the party made it impossible to fight against the regime of Ivanishvili.

The implication is that the informal leader of the Natsebi is Dato Kezerashvili, former Defense Minister during the Natsebi government, who has influence in the party because he made a ton of money under Misha and afterwards via internet scams in the UK. But he is not officially a National Movement Member. Melia met with party members and associates at the Biltmore Hotel and decided to meet in different cities to unite party supporters to get rid of the informal leadership. Melia said the party has been disintegrating for nine months due to what he calls this informal governance, which serves Bidzina Ivanishvili's interests. He said he will continue to hold meetings with Natsebi members in Kutaisi and Batumi, among other cities.

On Friday, the 6th, the Ministry of Education's selection process for school principals sparked protests among public schools in Samegrelo region. The protesters mainly focused on the process's unfairness, which prioritizes political affiliations over qualifications. The principal position has only one candidate in nearly 927 Georgian schools, and elections have not even been scheduled in 350 schools. The protesters demand the reinstatement of the previous principals, whom they see as more qualified. The current principles say that the government pressured them during the last elections, asking them to collect votes, and now the ministry has not even listed them as candidates for the positions as principals. The principal of Kirtskhi N1 Public School has been denied the opportunity to work at another school, possibly because they didn’t follow the government's instructions during the last election. For those unaware, almost all schools are polling stations and using school principals who then become the chairs of the polling stations to influence election outcomes is very common method to cheat in elections, particularly in Georgia. It is what Otsneba is trying to do now, in preparation for the parliamentary elections in a year.

On Tuesday the 10th, Giorgi Amilakhvari, the Minister of Education, announced plans to update all vocational education programs across the country. The Ministry will offer a new plan with mandatory modules for general education and will revise the programs and qualifications within a two-year period. The idea is to switch to a new financing model based on achievements. Students in 10th-12th grades will have the opportunity to acquire vocational education in addition to general education courses to find employment in the labor market. Amilakhvari said the aim is to equip all 2,100 schools with updated programs, qualifications, new priorities, and a new funding model.

On Tuesday the 10th, Levan Davitashvili, the Economy Minister, and Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, State Minister for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates, signed a new economic partnership agreement. Davitashvili said the deal aims to increase investments, trade turnover, and economic growth. The agreement will provide 98% of Georgian products access to the UAE's ten million consumer market and eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on goods, services, and investments.

On Friday the 6th, Business Media, a local business and economic portal, said that in twenty twenty-four, the Ministry of Infrastructure will have an annual budget of 3.35 billion lari, around 1.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 20 million lari or about 7.5 million US dollars compared to twenty twenty-three. The central government plans to finance sixty-two different investment infrastructure projects. The construction of the East-West Highway, which has three sub-programs, is the largest infrastructure project, with a budget of 1.2 billion laris or 450 million US dollars. The Kusheti-Kobi highway construction will come in second place, with 300 million laris, or 115 million US dollars. The Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Bank will fund most of these projects.

On Monday, the 9th, the Ministry of Defense announced the completion of the Makhata Mountain apartment project near Tbilisi, which was launched in October twenty twenty. The Ministry allocated these residential apartments to military personnel through a lottery-based system, improving the living conditions for officers, sergeants, and master sergeants.

The government-funded "Army City" project encompasses thirty-nine seven-story buildings on Makhata Mountain, with almost 1,100 apartments. Military members had the opportunity to purchase living spaces of fifty square meters (suitable for two or three members), eighty square meters (for four members), and 110 square meters (designed for five or more members) at interest-free rate installments. Army personnel paid 100 US dollars per square meter.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Nakhvamdis!