The Messenger, Georgia
Aug 22 2005

PACE President reminds Georgia of CoE duties

Official also praises direction of reform and calls on Georgia to
take greater role in regional conflicts

By Nino Kopaleishvili

Rene van der Linden

Georgia should fulfill the commitments it took before the Council of
Europe while becoming a member state, announced the President of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Rene van der
Linden at a press conference in the Parliament of Georgia on Sunday,
August 21.

Linden stressed that the Georgian government should pay more
attention to the 2005 recommendations of the Council of Europe and
the Venice Commission.

However, he also underlined “the great progress” Georgia has made
since the Rose Revolution, stating that the country is going in the
right direction.

“You have a strong position, a strong developed civil society and
independent media,” he stated.

Nonetheless, he urged the Georgian government to “speed up the
process” of implementing the recommendations and obligations to the
COE. He also urged the Georgian Parliament to accelerate the
ratification of EU conventions.

In a resolution adopted in January 2005, PACE gave Georgia deadlines
of September this year to sign and ratify the European Charter for
Regional and Minority Languages and the European Outline Convention
on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or
Authorities, and to ratify the European Social Charter and the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

Also by September the government is expected to adopt a legal
framework for restitution of ownership or compensation for property
lost during the conflicts of the early 1990s. The CoE’s Venice
Commission has also called on Georgia to revise the constitutional
structure of regional governance and the autonomy of Adjara.

The PACE president also talked about Georgia resolving “regional
conflicts.” He highlighted Georgia’s chances to support peace in the
South Caucasus region and to play “an outstanding role between
Armenia and Azerbaijan” on solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Georgia must become an example for the whole region,” he stated.

Linden, who was elected to office last January to replace Peter
Schieder, visited Armenia before coming to Georgia and left for
Azerbaijan on August 21. This is the first visit of Linden to all
three South Caucasus countries.

During his visit to Georgia from August 20 to 21, Linden met with
Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli, Deputy Speaker of
Parliament Mikheil Machavariani, Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II,
representatives of opposition parties and NGOs.

“Georgia must become an example for the whole region” – Rene van der
Linden
Declaring that civil society is quite strong in Georgia, Linden
called on the opposition to establish more cooperation with each
other.

“He said we should seek strength and a reliable partnership with each
other,” confirmed Republican MP Levan Berdzenishvili after
a meeting with the PACE president.

As Linden stated, the main thing the COE is concerned with in Georgia
is the independence of the judiciary and election committees.

At Sunday’s meeting, the opposition parties also raised the issue of
interim elections and asked for COE’s monitoring.

“We mainly raised the issue of interim elections on October 1 and
asked the president of the Parliamentary Assembly to intensify
monitoring during the election campaign as well as on the day of
voting. And we received consent from the side of the commission that
such monitoring will be there from their side,” said Conservative MP
Zviad Dzidziguri.

Linden stated later at the press conference that the COE does not
implement monitoring of interim elections, but he still stressed the
importance to hold transparent interim elections.

Linden also commented on the 7 percent threshold in the parliamentary
proportional elections admitting that “it is too high,” although he
added the lower threshold “would not change the situation.”

“So I appeal to the opposition parties to use the opportunity to
cooperate together,” he stated. “But, of course, we expect that the
threshold will be diminished.”

According to Republican MP Levan Berdzenishvili during the meeting
with opposition parties, the issue of media independence,
self-governance issues and Georgia’s pace to EU integration process
were discussed. Berdzenishvili also commented that besides talk of
“negative trends” that have emerged in Georgia, both sides positively
evaluated indicators of economic progress and education reforms.

“I hope that the Council of Europe will manage to get the Georgian
government on the right track to democracy and… recommendations of
the Venice Commission and legislative initiatives will be really
looked through,” stated Berdzenishvili.

Talking to journalists on August 20 after meeting the president of
PACE Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli stressed that it is important
for the Georgian government to fulfill EU recommendations.

Commenting on the law on self-governance and whether the Mayor should
be elected directly or indirectly, a subject which became an issue of
hot debates in recent months in Georgia, Linden stated that “the COE
will never interfere in the choice of member states.” Coming from the
Netherlands Linden stated that all mayors in his country are elected
by the government, however, he admitted that he himself is “in favor
of a directly elected mayor.”