Representative Danielsson submits proposition, negotiations continue for 7+ hours
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, March 31
The meeting between the opposition and the government, mediated by the Personal Representative of the President of the Council of Europe, Christian Danielsson, began at 5 yesterday and as of 7 hours later, it’s still going on.
Representatives of the opposition and the government are holding a joint meeting with Christian Danielsson, Personal Representative of the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
The meeting is being held at the EU Office and is attended by EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzel and US Ambassador Kelly Degnan.
Irakli Kobakhidze, Archil Talakvadze, and Shalva Papuashvili from the Georgian Dream are present at the talks, but they did not comment to the media before the meeting.
Danielsson also met with party representatives the previous day to prepare for the joint meeting. After the meeting, Danielsson said that on the 30th of March he would put on the table a text aimed at establishing a sustainable framework for the future as well as increasing confidence in the electoral process and the judiciary. According to the special representative, in the end, it is up to the parties to take responsibility and sign such a document. Danielsson stressed that if an agreement is reached, there will be only winners, and the main winner will be the Georgian people.
The media outlet “Publika” has obtained information about the content of the document submitted by the EU Special Representative, according to which information submitted by their source is the general idea of the text and not the exact wording.
Publika’s source states that the document, proposed by Danielsson includes the following suggestions:
- The European Union is ready to pay the bail of the chairman of the "National Movement", Nika Melia, through one of the funds. reported that the document proposed y Daielso includes ext
- Giorgi Rurua should leave the prison with the so-called "Udo" mechanism, an electronic bracelet, in November.
- An amnesty to be issued for the participants of the June 20 case - both activists and law enforcers.
- The opposition to lead 5 committees in the parliament, including the budget, human rights, procedure, foreign affairs...
- Suspend the process of appointing judges.
- The recommendations of the Venice Commission on the issue of party funding should be taken into account.
- Appoint the Attorney General with the support of two-thirds of the full membership of Parliament.
- The CEC chairman and staff should also be appointed with the support of two-thirds and his deputy should be a representative of the opposition.
The source says the document does not mention elections, which caused a delay in the mediation process. Recall that it’s the second official visit of Charles Michel’s representative to Georgia.
Gigi Ugulava, one of the leaders of the European Georgia party, spoke on Formula TV about the ongoing talks between the opposition and government officials.
According to him, he and other members of the opposition do not know what document will be put on the table today, however, as Gigi Ugulava notes, he remains under the impression that the members of the Georgian Dream already have information about the content of this document.
“I get the impression from these movements(refers to the multiple meetings of GD with Danielsson), and from the information that came out, that this "draft" or proposal was already discussed with Georgia Dream and was passed by that party. If this is confirmed, despite everyone's respect, it will not be possible to complete the mediation or anything,” Ugulava said.
Recall that a special representative met separately with Georgian president Salome Zurabishvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili as well as ruling Georgian Dream party representatives, as part of his returning visit to Tbilisi to mediate Georgia’s political crisis talks.
After he met with the EU mediator, PM Garibashvili reiterated the GD’s refusal to discuss holding snap elections, emphasizing that official representatives of the EU, the U.S. State Department and Senate, and the OSCE/ODIHR assessment” recognized the October 2020 general polls as legitimate. The Georgian PM also reaffirmed that there are no political prisoners in the country. GD Chair Kobakhidze said that there will be no snap elections, this is a given.
On the other hand, the opposition is underscoring that the goal of this process is de-escalating political crises and reaching real solutions, rather than just signing the agreement, thus they have formed their positions accordingly.
