Verfassungsblog (May 2024)

Challenges to Georgia’s EU Integration: Is the Georgian ‘Russian Law 2.0’ contrary to the Georgian Constitution?

  • Viktoriia Lapa,
  • Justin Frosini

DOI
https://doi.org/10.59704/58a1d6d4435633ec
Journal volume & issue
no. 2366-7044

Abstract

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The so-called Euro-Atlantic provisions have been inserted into the Georgian constitution in 2018 and aim “to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization“. The Georgian draft law ‘On Transparency of Foreign Influence’, the so-called ‘Russian Law 2.0’, is likely to be contrary to those Euro-Atlantic provisions in the Georgian Constitution. Georgia has EU candidate status since late 2023. According to statements by EU representatives, the law is incompatible with Georgia’s EU aspirations. If the law is passed by Parliament, despite ongoing pro-Western protests in the streets of Tbilisi, it remains to be seen what the constitutional Court will make of it, and whether Russian influence can be contained by the Court, which is itself, under pro-Russian political influence.

Keywords