Statement by Mr Kristian Vigenin, Co-President of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly on the parliamentary elections in Georgia.
First I would like to wish success to the new government of Georgia, led by the Prime Minister Ivanishvili. The key positions in it are entrusted to people with clear political and professional biography and this is a positive sign to the Georgian citizens and to the foreign partners.
I want to point out something seemingly paradoxical – the loss of the party of President Saakashvili and peaceful change in the government is the strongest evidence that the Rose revolution achieved its goals. Georgia has proved itself as a functioning democracy. The happy ending, however, should not make us blind to the alarming signals coming during the election campaign. I think that it was a very small step until to the full election distorting. I am confident that the strong presence of the European Union had a dampening effect. Here is the place to thank Catherine Ashton, Commissioner Stefan Füle and their teams for the excellent work that they have done.
Now is the time to be reflected all recommendations of the OSCE for the elections, the disadvantages of legislation to be corrected, so that the presidential elections next year to strengthen the positive trends.
Working between President Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili will be challenging without a doubt, but the cooperation between government and opposition in a democratic state is the key to stability”. I believe that the common long-term goals will help to overcome the personal opposition, which is a major potential threat to Georgia.
Now is important to be guaranteed that Georgia will continue its work with the European Union for successful negotiations on the Association Agreement (AA) . We expect that the new government will do more to support the poorest people, to strengthen labor rights and to correct the social inequalities, which was left by the current ultra-liberal economic policy.
Finally I would like to share that I look forward to the formation of the new Georgian delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly – I rely on its staff to allow Georgian MPs to join the groups of major European political families – the People’s Party, socialists and liberals. I want to this opportunity to thank the current members of the delegation and I hope that with some of them will continue to work in the future.