Georgia between the US and the EU Article by Vladimir Tkhvediani

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has long served as a tool for Brussels to exert direct pressure on Tbilisi while supporting Georgia’s radical “pro-European” opposition. In March 2026, the Commission is expected to issue a legal opinion on the May 13, 2025, law that allows the banning of radical opposition parties in Georgia. It is widely anticipated that the recommendation will call for the law’s repeal. However, the Georgian authorities now have an additional reason to disregard this guidance: the United States, the world’s leading superpower, has withdrawn from the Venice Commission.

The White House statement announced the United States’ withdrawal from a number of “wasteful, ineffective, and harmful international organizations.” Among the 66 bodies from which membership was terminated by President Donald Trump’s decision was the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity. President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over,” the White House statement reads.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Venice Commission has become yet another manifestation of the contradictions between the current White House administration and Brussels. Similar disagreements have previously emerged over Greenland, as well as in the disapproving reactions of several countries to U.S. operations in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Venice Commission itself has long been perceived as an instrument of the “supranational” Brussels bureaucracy, promoting the same liberal political agenda as the opponents of Donald Trump in the U.S. Democratic Party.

Unsurprisingly, the decision prompted a response from the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, who stated that “the Venice Commission has become a political weapon against countries, in order to impose various instruments or institutions based on various political agendas on countries.”

“[...] the Venice Commission is one of the institutions of the Council of Europe, and for us as a member state it is worrying that the Venice Commission has changed its profile and instead of compiling professional legal opinions, which were respected and important for all countries, has turned into an ordinary political commentator, which makes various opinions and conclusions based on the political agenda. This was confirmed today by the USA, which left the membership of the Venice Commission and left with the justification that it is a useless, money-wasting organization. This, of course, strengthens our opinion that the Venice Commission has missed the original mission that was invested in it,” said Papuashvili.

The U.S. decision regarding the Venice Commission is yet another sign that Georgia, much like Hungary under Viktor Orbán, is becoming an unofficial ally of the current White House administration. Donald Trump’s opponents, both in the U.S. and in the EU, criticise his administration on many of the same issues as the Georgian authorities, ranging from the much-discussed “LGBT rights” to relations with Russia.

The pragmatism of both Donald Trump and the Georgian Dream party in their relations with the Kremlin—their reluctance to engage in military adventures while defending national interests—is often portrayed by critics as an allegedly “pro-Russian stance.” In practice, the EU is doing everything it can to counteract Trump’s efforts to freeze the war in Ukraine, despite the fact that each day of the conflict brings nothing but new casualties, destruction, and Ukraine losing additional territory.

Donald Trump himself has so far been cautious about taking overt public steps toward Georgia—and for good reason. Global liberal media have so thoroughly vilified the current Georgian authorities and poured so much mud on them that any obvious support for the Georgian Dream party by the White House could be used to accuse Trump of “backing a pro-Russian dictatorship.”

Meanwhile, efforts to stage another “Maidan” against Trump in the United States resurfaced after activist Renee Nicole Good—who opposed the White House’s anti-immigration measures—was killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. Renee Nicole Good, who was also a member of the LGBT community (in a so-called “same-sex marriage”), was immediately turned into a “symbol” of another anti-Trump movement.

Almost immediately, “anti-Trump” protests were attempted in more than ten U.S. cities. Interestingly, the “epicentre” of this latest attempt at a “Maidan-style” protest coincided remarkably with the epicentre of the previous anti-Trump movement—the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement. In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who was detained by a white police officer, the United States experienced widespread protests that were, in effect, directed against Donald Trump, who was primarily supported by white, conservative voters.

However, attempts to use the death of Renée Nicole Good to undermine Donald Trump’s political standing—similar to how George Floyd’s death was leveraged during his previous presidential term—failed. The timing of the protests coincided with Trump’s “Venezuelan triumph”: a military operation that caused no U.S. casualties but achieved a highly symbolic result with the delivery of Venezuela’s “unruly” leader to the United States. As the saying goes, victors are not judged.

In the end, the effort to spark an anti-Trump wave this time did not succeed. That said, this does not preclude future attempts if the Trump administration experiences setbacks or missteps in foreign policy.

Support from the Donald Trump administration for Georgia’s current authorities has so far not been explicitly declared, except in the transit sector, where Tbilisi has been linked to the “Trump Route” (TRIPP). However, White House actions increasingly align with Georgia’s interests — and across multiple areas at once. A notable example is the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, who had recognised the “independence” of separatist entities in Georgia’s occupied territories.

Of course, the U.S. withdrawal from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe—as well as from a number of other organisations—was not motivated by the Georgian agenda. Nevertheless, it is symbolic that in this episode Donald Trump and the Georgian authorities found themselves on the same side of the “geopolitical barricades,” while the EU was on the opposite side.

“People may have differing opinions about specific organisations, but the fact remains that the reasons Trump cited for withdrawing from these entities are directly relevant to Georgia as well. We observe that many of those operating in Georgia, including the Venice Commission, are deviating from their original founding mission, the purpose for which these organisations were established. Unfortunately, they have transformed into bodies that, as Trump himself stated, support a radical agenda, promote it in various forms, and, in Georgia’s case, the so-called opinions of the Venice Commission have been used as a kind of lifeline for these radicals. Therefore, these issues are equally pertinent to Georgia,” said Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee.

The Trump administration is clearly unlikely to support Brussels’ pressure on Tbilisi through the Venice Commission or demand the repeal of laws adopted in Georgia’s national interest. This, in turn, could significantly strengthen the position of the current Georgian authorities.

By Vladimir Tskhvediani, Georgia, exclusively for Caliber.Az