An anti-Western party aligned with Georgia’s ruling party presented two draft laws that could torpedo the country’s EU membership path. The bill was submitted on February 14 and requires non-profit and other outlets that draw resources from outside Georgia for more than 20% of their funding to register as “agents of foreign influence.” Two drafts of the bill have passed their first committee hearing despite protests in front of the Parliament on March 2.
According to a legislative draft obtained by RFE/RL, the definition of foreign force is quite broad and could include government bodies, individuals and organizations established outside of Georgia. The “foreign influence agents” will have to disclose their funding source to avoid a fine of up to 25,000 Georgian lari.
The promoter of the law is the People’s Power, a party created last year from a spin-off of ruling party Georgian Dream by Sozar Subari, Mikheil Kavelashvili and Dimitri Khundadze. The new party is part of the ruling coalition.
The promoters of the law argued that they followed the example of Western laws on transparency, including the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in drafting it. However, several countries have also used those examples, but their laws have always ending up to a crackdown on critical voices and international organizations. The link with the US’ FARA prompted US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price to said on February 15 that statements using the FARA as the basis for the draft law “are patently false,” adding that the law “appears to be based on similar Russian and Hungarian legislation.”
The law may deal a fatal blow to EU membership talks. Georgia has to carry on 12 reform priorities and the Commission will report on progress in October, before a final decision by member states. The law in its current form may be a hurdle due to the many democratic challenges that Georgia is still trying to face.
