Georgian parliamentary committee overrides president's veto on controversial bill

The Legal Committee of the Georgian Parliament has overridden President Salome Zurabishvili's veto on the high-profile bill ‘On Transparency of Foreign Influence’, which mandates the creation of a register for foreign-funded non-governmental organizations and media outlets, requiring them to submit declarations, Caliber.Az reports, citing Georgian media.

President Zurabishvili, in her veto remarks, asserted that the bill should not be subject to amendments, and proposed an article stating that the law would lose force one day after coming into effect. The ruling Georgian Dream party accused the president of stifling discussion and preventing any possibility of modifications, leading to the veto's override.

“You will not force me to move to a substantive, article-by-article consideration of the law... The whole law is unacceptable and it should be canceled,” Presidential Parliamentary Secretary Giorgi Mskhiladze stated at the meeting.

Mskhiladze argued that the draft law contradicts four articles of the constitution: “Right to Associations” (Article 22), “Rights to inviolability of personal and family life, personal space and communication” (Article 15), “Right to Equality” (Article 11), and “Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic” (Article 78). He warned that if adopted, non-governmental organizations and media would be endangered.

Mskhiladze echoed the concerns of the president, opposition parties, NGOs, and activists who have been protesting the bill since April 15, asserting that the parliamentary majority is enacting a law analogous to Russia's “foreign agents” legislation.

He emphasized that the draft law’s unacceptability is underscored by the 2023 conclusions of the Venice Commission and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which had also reviewed and criticized the initial version of the bill before it was withdrawn.