Parliamentary Assembly

President of the Parliamentary Assembly, members of the Assembly, ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to affirm Georgia’s commitment to the vision of a Europe whole and free, at a point in time when everyone’s faith in that vision is being put to the test. For Georgia, the boats have long been burned. We have made our choice. We have come a long way on the path to a whole and free Europe. In April 1999, Georgia acceded to the Council of Europe. There are few institutions that speak of Europe as whole and free as the Council of Europe does. Georgia has joined a number of organisations to be accredited into a club of European nations. That was a national strategy. In joining the Council of Europe, we have become European in the deepest sense of the term, valuing historical roots but also empowering individual citizens.

Being European is not a geographic statement. It is chiefly about having a sense of security, dignity, freedom and opportunity that reflects a particular social contract. My country will not be free unless its citizens can live in dignity. The idea that citizens have inalienable rights that are not subject to the tyranny of a majority is at the heart of Europe’s democratic experience. We are drafting a social contract of European quality. That contract is not subject to ratification, veto, conditionality, approval or negotiation by anyone else.

We are moving ahead, despite certain internal or external problems and conditionality. Before 2012, regimes changed, but not by electoral means. Against all odds, in 2012 Georgian people achieved a peaceful transfer of power that amounted to regime change. Since then, we have delivered free elections, both local and presidential, on a level playing field. This year, we will complete the circle with parliamentary elections. We need competitive but also uneventful elections of the kind in which accounts are not frozen, no one controls what kind of news people watch and each candidate has his or her day in the ballot box.

“We have made our choice, we have come a long way to be part of a Europe whole and free. In joining the Council of Europe, we have become ‘European’ in the deepest sense of the term.”

We eagerly anticipate the Parliamentary Assembly’s monitoring this year for two reasons. First, Georgia has been served by international monitoring in times when elections could not be lost. We counted on you when our voices could not be heard. Secondly, elections in 2016 will be the most transparent, fair and level elections we have had. We want you to be there to celebrate the results, whatever they are. We are moving away from democratic transition to democratic consolidation, where the winner does not take all and the loser does not lose all. We are proud of that.

We have delivered Europe to Georgians, and we have surpassed Europe’s expectations of democratic consolidation and democratisation. We are the proof that democracy promotion, conditionality and institution capacity-building work when there is ownership of the objectives before us. If we can do it, so can others. We now have experience in the successful implementation of reforms, identifying objectives, defining tasks, keeping up with deadlines and delivering on quality benchmarks.

We have recently delivered on visa legalisation prerequisites, which promise the prospect of free and unhindered movement. For obvious reasons, every citizen in Georgia is eager to feel that kind of admittance in this space of free movement. To travel with dignity and to be welcomed and trusted would be the most meaningful and tangible statement of a return to Europe since our independence. The privilege to travel from Vilnius to Athens and from Madrid to Bucharest without a single stop is central to the experience of being European. The 100 million Europeans who joined the European Union in 2004 can empathise with Georgia’s thirst for that kind of freedom. Freedom is an integral part of our identity. After years of reforms and sacrifices, Tbilisi will turn to its citizens in the occupied territories with solid proof that it pays to be pro-European and say, “Join us. Study, work and flourish with us.”

Each opportunity we deliver to our citizens is the product of hard work. Each policy is a value chain that requires focus, co-ordination, definition of roles, initiative, a sense of responsibility and, of course, leadership. However, reforms are ultimately about chains made of values that anchor us to Europe, which is a civilisation that places the citizen at the heart of the political process. Stakeholder consultations, monitoring, reporting and evaluation keep everyone on their toes.

Abiding by European standards is an obligation that has now become a habit. The accumulative result of reforms year on year is that citizens, civil society organisations and the media have real power. We are building a home with a place for all citizens of Georgia. By ensuring strong protection of human rights, we are building a home to come to, not to leave. Our national seven-year plan for the promotion of human rights aims to enshrine the democratic values that we stand for at the very heart of our society. We have outlawed discrimination on the basis of colour, national identity, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. We are making a State in which national minorities have the right to their culture, religion and language and to security and opportunity. We are committed to ensuring the full engagement of minorities in the ongoing developments and decision-making processes in Georgia.

We are building a society where women are protected not only by law but in practice. Since July 2015, civic organisations can file cases on behalf of victimised women. We have signed the Istanbul Convention. We have a national action plan for Security Council Resolution 1325. When I look at the Davos gender equality economic indicators, it is clear that Georgia has some way to go, but we are looking at those indicators, and that is the beginning of every serious policy. We have transformed the ministry of internal affairs into a community-oriented organisation and enacted a new law on policing, which sets the highest standards for the protection of human rights and enshrines the principles of legality, equality, proportionality and political neutrality. We cannot outlaw intolerance, but we can make it unacceptable.

Looking ahead, the priority of the Government of Georgia is to ensure decent living conditions and opportunities for Georgian citizens. Our agenda is as comprehensive as ever. Having introduced a national healthcare programme and doubled welfare services, we have adopted a four-point reform agenda with the following priorities. First, we are facilitating jobs creation by further liberalising business and the investment environment, including inter alia by implementing tax reform and supporting entrepreneurship. Secondly, we are empowering people by supporting skills creation in education reforms targeted at bridging the gap between what professions demand and the supply. Thirdly, we are strengthening open governance by ensuring that we have an inclusive decision-making process, where opposition, civil society and private sector voices are heard. Fourthly, we are improving and modernising public services, including by introducing the single-window principle and a unified front office for all government services for individuals and companies.

Together with the implementation of relevant soft policies, we are investing in core infrastructure development, including by supporting the expansion of the east-west and south-north trade corridors, utilising Georgia’s potential as a transit country between Europe and Asia – we also have massive tourism potential – and thus creating economic opportunities for all our citizens.

One of the biggest challenges the Georgian Government faces is the situation in the occupied regions of Georgia – Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region of South Ossetia. As a human rights organisation rather than a security organisation, the Council of Europe has an important role to play in protecting human rights in the occupied territories of Georgia. One cause of the violation of human rights in the areas affected by the conflict in Georgia is so-called borderisation, namely artificial obstacles along the occupation line installed by the Russian Federation, which divide families and significantly affect the everyday life of the local population. The people residing within the occupied regions and adjacent areas are deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms, including but not limited to the freedom of movement, the right to property and family, the right to an education in their native language, and other civic and economic rights.

Another important concern is Council of Europe access to areas affected by the conflict. Despite his efforts, the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner has not been granted access to the occupied regions of Georgia. We seek to break the deadlock in Russia-Georgia relations by pursuing pragmatic policies, including by taking steps to restore relations in trade, transport, humanitarian aspects and other fields, but our efforts to normalise relations with Moscow are insufficient without due respect for our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. We are also greatly concerned about the plan of the Tskhinvali South Ossetia de facto authorities to hold a referendum on joining the Russian Federation. Such illegal developments not only undermine Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but have potentially dire consequences in an already-fragile South Caucasus region.

At all times, security is a priority in parliament. We are no longer a country where each family has someone in prison. Only a few years ago, we were the country that held the shameful record of having more prisoners per capita among all European countries. The government could shake you down for your money or your vote, threatening to deprive you of your dignity or that of your loved ones.

We are European, but the term “dignity” lies at the heart of being a Georgian. We have worked and are working closely with the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, European Union special adviser Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe special adviser Michael O’Boyle, and the European Commission. That forum will provide what should be taken for granted: a depoliticised police force; a prosecution that goes after offenders of any social class; a justice system that cannot be arm-twisted; a plea bargaining process that does not shake up in blackmail; a plea bargaining system that serves justice, not power; and a penitentiary system that is not an instrument of revenge and mass terror.

Are we perfect yet? No, we are not. No one in Europe is perfect. We have utopias that are unreachable – that is very European – but the commitment to constructing a utopia lies at the heart of a nation that has discovered wine and is determined to build a republic. That is hard work but it is also decent work.

The new 2016 to 2019 action plan agreed between Georgia and the Council of Europe focuses on the promotion of penitentiary and judicial reforms. We have moved from the general to the specific with resolve. The independence of the judiciary and prosecution has been armoured with life tenure and peer-to-peer regulation and oversight. Our administration did that from 2013 to this day in three successive waves of reform. The transparency of the judicial process has been reinforced to create a level playing field between the prosecution and defence, and we have consolidated best European practice for the safety and impartiality of jury trials. We have halved the prison population and are using imprisonment as a measure of last resort, and we have put in place guarantees for juvenile offenders.

We are the first government since Georgia’s independence that is not feared. Perhaps that is the achievement of which we are most proud, although we are shamed by the fact that the rule of law cannot be extended to the occupied territories. We can only do what we can for internally displaced persons and refugees. We can only invest in confidence-building measures and outreach, and hope for a bottom-up solution.

We are delivering what we can where we can. In doing so, we will be criticised and monitored, as we should be. Our work is not technocratic but political. As representatives of the Georgian people, we set an agenda, prioritise, allocate resources and assume responsibilities – or, in one word, lead.

The government believes with good reason that confidence in the rule of law requires not only reforms, but restorative justice. We want to make Georgia a better place to live for citizens, and not just to show off. In the history of democracy, there has never been restorative justice without controversy. The balance between restoration and lustration is thin, and criticism is inevitable. We want unity, but not at the expense of justice. We want justice, but not at the expense of unity. That is the essence of our Gordian knot, but we will not cut the knot with silence – as Martin Luther King said, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. We must loosen the knot. To be silent is to be an accomplice in injustice, and Georgia needs to believe in justice. That is the essence of democratic consolidation for us. No one should be forced to be silent, and no one is forced to be silent in Georgia today.

Reporters without Borders suggested that, in 2015, Georgia was a leader in eastern Europe. Freedom House has continued to provide glowing reviews of Georgia over the past four years. For freedom of the Internet, Georgia is ninth in the world, on a par with Britain and France. In 2012, we created one of the most liberal digital broadcasting regimes in the world. We go the extra mile. The board of public broadcasters is a truly independent body that engages stakeholders, including NGOs and monitors. Cable TV providers must guarantee media pluralism and offer alternative voices.

As I said, we are celebrating 17 years having a relationship with the Council of Europe in April, and 25 years of the restoration of independence in May. Twenty-five years is a generation. We have had a generation of moving towards the essence of Europe, which complements independence and is significant for each Georgian. In pursuing democratic consolidation and building a European state, we are opting for a certain kind of civilisation. That is the essence of our choice.

The Council of Europe is at the heart of being European and of the kind of contract we want as a polity. We understand that the Parliamentary Assembly is as much about politics as policies. From our friends and foes, this year we ask one thing: make decisions of which you can be proud. By all means be critical, but also be helpful. Help us build on the foundations that we have laid together. Help us be all we can be in a country that is partly occupied, but fully European.

Georgia has responded to expectations. We are proof that promoting democracy, institution building, civic empowerment, conditionality and reforms work. We hope that, together, we can set a faster pace towards democratic consolidation. Together, against the odds and against the forces that want to take Europe apart, we stand on the right side of history. Let us stand together for everything that Europe stands for. We are European, which is the essence of dignity, which is at the heart of every Georgian. “European” means the dignity of a citizen that every Georgian deserves, and dignity is at the heart of our identity.