According to the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, the recent statement by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos can be regarded as an attempt to meddle in the internal affairs of Serbia. The politician added that her remarks were so unprofessional «that we can no longer take them seriously».
Papuashvili was commenting on the European Commissioner’s remarks that countries seeking to join the EU must sever ties with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in order to become members of the bloc. According to the parliament speaker, Kos’s statement was aimed primarily at Serbia, where elections are scheduled to take place in October.
«Well, this is simply ridiculous. When countries are not even members of the European Union, but candidate sovereign states—and people attempt to issue direct ultimatums to them regarding their foreign policy and international relations. First it was China, and now after China they have targeted the United States of America. The EU’s foreign policy, including on enlargement, is so unprofessional that we can no longer take the statements being made here seriously. These words literally amount to a public call to sever relations with the United States of America and its administration. How can anyone take anything seriously after this?
This statement was made with Serbia specifically in mind, where a conference will be held shortly, including with the participation of representatives of the aforementioned [MAGA] movement. Elections in Serbia are set for October, and this signal is one of the attempts to interfere in them. I am convinced that other attempts by Brussels to influence the Serbian elections will follow, just as there were attempts to interfere in the elections in Georgia».
According to Papuashvili, if anything is a genuine European value, it is respect for the sovereignty of another country and the sovereign choice of its people—«a value that today’s Brussels openly tramples on by directly interfering in elections». The parliament speaker added that the 2024 elections in Georgia are the most telling example of «how crudely, using what they themselves so often call ‘Russian methods,’ they interfered in the elections in Georgia».
