Georgia to suspend EU accession talks until 2028 

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze says Georgia will suspend talks on European Union accession for four years and accused Brussels of “blackmail”.

The announcement on Thursday came hours after the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of Georgia’s October 26 parliamentary elections due to “significant irregularities”.

The resolution called for new elections to be held within a year under international supervision and for sanctions to be imposed on top Georgian officials, including Kobakhidze.

Accusing the European Parliament and “some European politicians” of “blackmail,” Kobakhidze said: “We have decided not to bring up the issue of joining the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028.”

But he pledged to continue implementing the necessary reforms, asserting that “by 2028, Georgia will be more prepared than any other candidate country to open accession talks with Brussels and become a member state in 2030.”

There was no immediate comment from Brussels.

The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million has the goal of EU accession written into its constitution, but relations with Brussels have deteriorated sharply in recent months. The EU has previously said that Georgia’s application is frozen.

Georgia gained EU candidate status in December 2023 but the EU has said that a series of laws passed by the governing Georgian Dream party since, including curbs on “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights, are authoritarian, Russian-inspired, and obstacles to EU membership.

Western countries have also said that last month’s election, in which official results gave the Georgian Dream bloc almost 54 percent of the vote, was marred by violations. However, its success has led to boycotts by opposition parties, who call the results of the vote a sham.

The European Parliament on Thursday urged Georgia to call new elections after the vote was spoiled by “significant irregularities”.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg adopted the resolution blaming the Georgian Dream party for holding elections that were not free or fair.

They also rejected any recognition of the result, slamming “numerous and serious” electoral violations, including voter intimidation and vote manipulation.

The resolution also urged the EU to sanction several Georgian Dream officials, including Kobakhidze, Tbilisi Mayor and ex-footballer Kakha Kaladze, and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

In Georgia’s parliament, opposition lawmakers began a boycott of this week’s new session after alleging that Georgian Dream won due to fraud.

Pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili has declared the ballot “unconstitutional” and wants to annul the results through the Constitutional Court.

Following the election, a group of Georgia’s election monitors said they had evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud favouring Georgian Dream.

Georgia Dream has denied all allegations of voter fraud.