GEORGIAN

Statements

NGOs urge the government to provide argumentation for refusing publicizing answers to EU questionnaire

NGOs urge the government to provide argumentation for refusing publicizing answers to EU questionnaire

To the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili

On April 29, 2022, the Georgian government refused to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire made on behalf of the country. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the answers contain issues that are deemed not expedient to be made public.

Under Georgian law, public information may be kept confidential only if it is a professional, personal, commercial, or state secret.

Given the high public interest in Georgia’s accession to the European Union, we urge you to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire or to present an argument on the basis of which you make information confidential under Georgian law. In case the information provided to the EU truly contains professional, personal, commercial, or state secrets, the relevant parts should be encrypted, and the rest should be made public, as required by the standards of Freedom of Information of Georgia and the EU.

According to the latest survey, 88% of the Georgian population supports the country’s accession to the European Union. With this in mind, the government should ensure the transparency, openness, and involvement of stakeholders in the process.

 

Signatories:

  1. Open Society Georgian Foundation
  2. Transparency International Georgia
  3. Georgian Democracy Initiative
  4. Media Development Foundation
  5. Governance Monitoring Center (GMC)
  6. Atlantic Council of Georgia (ACG)
  7. Democracy Research Institute (DRI)
  8. Civic Idea
  9. Rights Georgia
  10. Association Green Alternative
  11. Social Justice Center
  12. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
  13. Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC)
  14. Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI)
  15. Democracy Index of Georgia
  16. Europe Foundation
  17. Georgian Center for Strategy and Development (GCSD)
  18. Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies (GISS)
  19. Georgian Institute of Politics
  20. Easter European Centre for Multiparty Democracy
  21. Liberal Academy Tbilisi
  22. Caucasus Institute for Peace
  23. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
  24. Georgia’s Reforms Associates
  25. Center for Social Sciences
  26. Partnership for Human Rights
  27. Union Sapari
  28. Tolerance and Diversity Institute
  29. Caucasus Open Space COS
  30. International Prison Reform