To the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili

On April 29, 2022, the Georgian government refused to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire made on behalf of the country. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the answers contain issues that are deemed not expedient to be made public.

Under Georgian law, public information may be kept confidential only if it is a professional, personal, commercial, or state secret.

Given the high public interest in Georgia’s accession to the European Union, we urge you to make public the answers to the EU questionnaire or to present an argument on the basis of which you make information confidential under Georgian law. In case the information provided to the EU truly contains professional, personal, commercial, or state secrets, the relevant parts should be encrypted and the rest should be made public, as required by the standards of Freedom of Information of Georgia and the EU.

According to the latest survey, 88% of the Georgian population supports the country’s accession to the European Union. With this in mind, the government should ensure the transparency, openness, and involvement of stakeholders in the process.

Signatories:

1. Open Society Georgian Foundation
2. Transparency International Georgia
3. Georgian Democracy Initiative
4. Media Development Foundation
5. Governance Monitoring Center (GMC)
6. Atlantic Council of Georgia (ACG)
7. Democracy Research Institute (DRI)
8. Civic Idea
9. Rights Georgia
10. Association Green Alternative
11. Social Justice Center
12. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
13. Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC)
14. Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI)
15. Democracy Index of Georgia
16. Europe Foundation
17. Georgian Center for Strategy and Development (GCSD)
18. Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies (GISS)
19. Georgian Institute of Politics
20. Easter European Centre for Multiparty Democracy
21. Liberal Academy Tbilisi
22. Caucasus Institute for Peace
23. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
24. Georgia’s Reforms Associates
25. Center for Social Sciences
26. Partnership for Human Rights
27. Union Sapari
28. Tolerance and Diversity Institute
29. Caucasus Open Space COS
30. International Prison Reform