In recent months, the EU has engaged at a high level in Georgia’s political crisis and sought to break the deadlock there. It has demonstrated that it is strongly invested in Georgia and sees the country’s democratization as a matter of strategic importance for European interests. The EU’s intervention has been shaped around a process of mediation between the ruling and opposition political parties, as the bitterness of their rivalry risks a major unravelling of the country’s democratic reforms. Although the EU’s engagement entails many positive elements, the union will now need to move beyond mediation and ally this to a careful use of democratic leverage to ensure that necessary reforms are implemented in Georgia. Otherwise, the breakthrough it brokered will remain shallow and another political crisis could easily erupt.
OP-ED
Elene Panchulidze, Richard Youngs: Defusing Georgia’s political crisis
Georgian opposition parties members and supporters march demanding snap polls - three days after police arrested a top opposition leader and raided his party headquarters - in downtown Tbilisi on Feb. 26, 2021.
