Georgia’s prime minister has called European Union threats to suspend visa liberalisation with his country “blackmail.”
The statement follows the publication of a letter from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, which mentions adopting the Seventh Visa Suspension Mechanism Report—citing “serious breaches of fundamental rights and freedoms by Georgia.” Tbilisi also received a series of ‘recommendations’ it would need to act upon in order to fall into line with EU values.
PM Irakli Kobakhidze addressed the content of the letter, stating
If the choice comes down to peace and stability or visa liberalisation, we will, of course, prioritise peace and stability.
Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party is under fire from the EU for adopting a “foreign agents law” designed to ensure transparency in the NGO and ‘civil society’ sectors—despite many EU member states having similar rules in place. Since Georgia secured EU membership candidacy status in 2023, the country has been under pressure from Brussels, with only Hungary and Slovakia willing to stand up for its sovereignty.
Georgia was granted visa-free travel to the EU in 2017, although its diplomats have since had this status revoked (although they can still travel as private citizens).
There is some confusion over whether this letter, addressed to Georgia’s Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili, is the same as the one EU foreign policy boss Kaja Kallas threatened to send to Tbilisi earlier this month. Both include the same demands—drop the foreign agents law, introduce an anticorruption policy, harmonise Georgian border controls with those of the EU—but the Kallas version would set an August 2025 deadline for compliance.
