Hungary and Slovakia are blocking EU plans for sanctions against Georgia over violence against pro-European demonstrators.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó justified the move on Monday after an EU meeting in Brussels, alleging that the European Union was taking sides with the protesters. He claimed Georgia was being targeted simply because a patriotic and conservative party, rather than liberal forces, had won the recent elections.
The EU plan had been to impose entry bans into the 27-member trading bloc for several officials responsible for police violence and to order the freezing of assets that might be located in the EU. However, this has now failed for the time being.
Nonetheless, the plan to suspend EU visa-free entry for Georgians with diplomatic or service passports is still on the table. An official plan for that is to be proposed by the end of the year, according to the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. For it to pass, only a majority is needed, rather than the unanimous consent required for sanctions.
A significant majority of EU member states believe that Georgian authorities recently acted with unlawful violence and arbitrary arrests against demonstrators and opposition leaders.
The sanctions’ rejection by Hungary and Slovakia followed Monday’s move by Lithuania, which announced it is expanding sanctions on an additional 17 individuals held responsible for the oppression. That move, announced by the foreign ministry in Vilnius, follows similar action by Estonia.
Lithuania’s move includes blacklisting Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who, like all others on the sanctions list, is now banned from entering Lithuania. Estonia had previously imposed further sanctions on 14 leading Georgian politicians.