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The News in Brief

Friday, August 6
Prepared by the Messenger Staff

EU report: Finalise the reform of the Supreme Court by bringing the selection procedure for judges fully in line with Venice Commission recommendations and with European standards

Overall, Georgia continues to fulfil the visa liberalisation benchmarks and has taken action to address the Commission recommendations. However, further efforts are needed to address the issue of unfounded asylum applications in Member States as well as in the areas of anti-money laundering, the prevention and fight against corruption and against organized crime, - reads 4th report on the monitoring of the EU visa-free regime with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The Commission makes several recommendations to Georgia:

“Continue to proactively address the issue of unfounded asylum applications in Member States; tailor the information campaigns on the visa-free regime to relevant migrant profiles, including as regards vulnerable groups, overstays and unfounded asylum applications.

Improve the efficiency of anti-corruption institutions and law enforcement agencies in order to better address the cases of high corruption; ensure that all such cases are investigated.

Finalise the reform of the Supreme Court by bringing the selection procedure for judges fully in line with Venice Commission recommendations and with European standards; 26 finalise the reform of prosecution, including by the separation of functions between investigators and prosecutors; finalise the operational development of the FIU by ensuring that (a) it is able to obtain necessary information from reporting entities and (b) has full access on a timely basis to the necessary financial, administrative and law enforcement information to undertake its functions properly; continue the efforts in the prevention and fight against organised crime, in particular against the laundering of profits from illegal activities; continue efforts to fully align national legislation with the EU acquis on AntiMoney Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing.

Ensure further alignment of Georgia’s visa policy with the EU lists of visa-required third countries, in particular as regards those third countries which present irregular migration or security risks for the EU,” reads the statement by EU.