The non-governmental organizations are addressing the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili with an open letter. They believe that the EU accession process should be open, transparent and that it is important to ensure the involvement of civil society in this process.

Representatives of the third sector demand that the questionnaire handed over to Georgia and the answers submitted by the Government be made public.

"On March 3, 2022, the Georgian Government submitted an application to join the European Union. On March 10, EU leaders asked the European Commission to study Georgia's application for EU membership. In the near future, the European Union will submit a questionnaire to the Georgian Government, on the basis of which the country should be evaluated.

We, the signatory organizations, believe that the process of joining the European Union should be open, transparent and inclusive. It is important to ensure the involvement of civil society in it. We emphasize that civil society has valuable experience in assessing the current state of justice, the fight against corruption and human rights situation in Georgia (Chapter 23 of the EU accession negotiations) using an identical questionnaire (see evaluation document https://bit.ly/3LUEYyh).

In view of the above, we request you to make public the questionnaire handed over to Georgia and the answers submitted by the Government, which will make the process transparent, inclusive and ensure the involvement of stakeholders," says the joint statement signed by the folowing NGOs:

Open Society Foundation, Partnership for Human Rights, Democracy Index Georgia, Law and Policy Research Institute, Georgian Charter of Journalists, Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, Rights Georgia, Social Justice Center, Caucasus Open Space, Center for Social Sciences, Institute for Tolerance and Diversity, Sapari Union, International Prison Reform, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, Prevention for Progress, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information.

source: IPN