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Georgian government preparing for EU move to suspend visa-free travel [1]
['Irakli Machaidze', 'Allan Mustard']
Date: 2025-05
From 2017 to 2024, more than a million Georgians have traveled to the Schengen Area without needing a visa. Any tightening of the existing travel rules would be sure to cause a spike in dissatisfaction with the Georgian Dream government. (Photo: gov.ge)
Nothing has been decided in Brussels yet, but the ruling Georgian Dream party in Tbilisi is already bracing for a scenario in which the European Union suspends visa-free travel privileges for Georgians in response to the government's embrace of authoritarian practices.
The issue has explosive ramifications for Georgia, potentially adding lots of fuel to steadily burning anti-government protests. Any tightening of the existing travel rules would be sure to cause a spike in dissatisfaction with the Georgian Dream government, which in recent years has steered the country away from once-close relations with the EU and United States back toward Russia. Many Georgians tend to blame Georgian Dream for scuttling the country’s ambitions of integrating into Western political and economic institutions.
RFE/RL has reported that the EU is considering changes to the rules covering visa requirements that would broaden the grounds for suspending visa-free regimes. The amendments could have the effect of turning visa policy into a tool of exerting political pressure on other states.
The fresh guidelines under consideration would enable EU officials to take such factors as “serious human rights violations” and “serious breaches of international law and standards” into account when determining visa policy. Georgian Dream leaders are well aware that their legislative crackdown on civil society, mass media, political opponents, the LGBTQ community, and others, along with violent responses to peaceful protests and the adoption of police state-style rules, would make Georgia a prime candidate for the suspension of visa-free travel, if new guidelines are adopted.
“Visa-free access is granted to European countries that are democracies, respect human rights, and do not pose migration issues. We must assess whether these conditions are still being met [in Georgia],” Germany’s ambassador in Tbilisi, Peter Fischer, recently stated.
In confronting the growing possibility of a suspension, Georgian Dream leaders have seemingly decided their best defense is to go on the rhetorical offensive.
Responding to Fischer’s comments, Shalva Papuashvili, chairman of Georgia’s rubber-stamp parliament, effectively told the German envoy to shut up: “Is visa-free travel some sort of divine gift? We also have visa-free access for Germans, so what?” Papuashvili said.
Other Georgian Dream figures have tried to downplay the significance of the issue, insisting, against all available evidence, that it is not a big concern for Georgians. “I don’t have such a low opinion of the Georgian people that visa-free would matter more to them than rejecting an anti-national, anti-Christian policy,” said Sozar Subari, an MP and leader of the government’s most anti-Western faction.
Another MP, Nino Tsilosani, stated: “If comfort comes into conflict with patriotism, the Georgian people have always remained, and will continue to remain, patriots of their country.”
Government opponents, meanwhile, say a collective punishment, such as the suspension of visa-free travel, is too harsh a penalty for the actions of a relatively small circle of political actors. Civil society organizations issued a joint statement urging international partners not to impose what amounts to a sanction on all Georgians, but rather undertake targeted, punitive action against those responsible for adopting unconstitutional laws and authorizing repression.
Georgian Dream “is doing everything possible to provoke the EU into quickly suspending visa liberalization, plunging the Georgian people into an extremely difficult situation,” the statement cautioned. “The regime is attempting to evade responsibility through propaganda tactics. They are fully aware that once visa-free travel is suspended, it will take many years to restore.”
The idea of suspending visa-free travel has been on the table since mid-2024, when the Georgian Dream-dominated legislature first adopted the controversial ‘foreign agents’ law. In December 2024, the EU attempted to impose sanctions on Georgian officials, but the move was blocked by Hungary and Slovakia, two states whose leaderships have strong ties to Georgian Dream leaders. However, unlike sanctions, a decision to suspend visa-free travel does not require EU unanimity; a qualified majority is enough.
The EU has already suspended visa-free travel for Georgian diplomats and officials in response to what it described as a shift away from “fundamental rights and democratic values”, a move that followed violent crackdowns and the government’s announcement to halt EU accession talks. Several GD officials also face travel bans from individual EU states, as well as the United Kingdom and the US. So far, ordinary Georgians have not been affected by these restrictions, but that could change.
From 2017 to 2024, more than a million Georgians have traveled to the Schengen Area without needing a visa, an impressive figure for a country of just over 3.6 million people. As the debate over its potential suspension grows louder, so do the voices of citizens for whom short-term travel is essential, whether for medical treatment, education and work opportunities, or reuniting with family abroad.
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https://eurasianet.org/georgian-government-preparing-for-eu-move-to-suspend-visa-free-travel
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