Georgia's EU Accession Halted Amid Controversial 'Foreign Influence' Law

The European Union has halted Georgia's accession process and frozen €30 million in financial support following the adoption of a contentious 'foreign influence' law. This law mandates NGOs and media receiving over 20% foreign funding to register as influenced by foreign powers, which critics argue curtails democratic freedoms.

Georgia's accession to the European Union has been halted, and some of the bloc's financial support to the South Caucasus country has been frozen after the Georgian authorities adopted a new law that critics feared would curb democratic freedoms, the EU Ambassador in Georgia said Tuesday.

According to Pawel Herczynski, EU leaders made the decision to halt the process during the last summit of the European Council, and it came in the wake of the Georgian authorities adopting the law on "foreign influence" despite weeks of protests. In addition, a total of 30 million euros (USD 32.5 million) in financial support, earmarked for Georgia's Defence Ministry in 2024, has been frozen, Herczynski said at a news conference.

The law, which came into effect last month despite mass protests and a veto from the country's president, requires media, nongovernmental organizations, and other nonprofit groups to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. The opposition has denounced the bill as "the Russian law" because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent news media, organizations, and individuals critical of the Kremlin, and called its passage a sign of neighboring Russia's hold over Georgia.

(With inputs from agencies.)