On Wednesday, Georgia’s parliament approved a bill that prohibits foreign donor organizations from giving grants to local groups without government approval, marking a further step in the crackdown on foreign influence in the country. The new law also bans international actors from arranging events for Georgian political parties.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, however, was not amused, seeing the actions of the sovereign Caucasus state as adding to “recent repressive legislation”—or, as those of a less Europhile persuasion might say, legislation preventing organizations like the now-departed USAID from pouring money into NGOs opposing conservative governments.
It’s not clear what “repressive legislation” Kallas refers to, but the only recent law in this area is the Foreign Agents Law passed by the Georgian parliament at the beginning of this month—a law that word for word copies the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Kallas’ post on X was the second time this week that an EU official threatened a prospective member state’s accession, saying “These steps undermine Georgia’s EU candidate status and core democratic principles.”
“Democratic principles” in this vernacular, of course, means the same thing as “EU values” which, in turn, translates into ‘the liberal-globalist agenda.’
