The US ambassador said that the Ukrainian side withdrew the draft law from the Venice Commission, while the European Council claims that it did not - the contradictory information raised questions, said Davit Matikashvili, a member of the parliamentary majority.

According to him, the ruling team will clarify the information and will make a decision on sending the draft law to the Venice Commission after that.

"As the public knows, contradictory information has been circulating for the last two days regarding the withdrawal of the Ukrainian draft law from the Venice Commission. Yesterday, the US ambassador said that the Ukrainian side withdrew the draft law from the Venice Commission and is no longer waiting for the conclusion. In this context, she called on Georgia to send its own version of the draft law to the Venice Commission. It turns out today, and as the European Council says, the Ukrainian side has not withdrawn the bill, the European Council simply cannot specify when the report regarding the Ukrainian version will be ready. This issue raised even more questions, why such conflicting information was spread. We must clarify this issue, as we do not see the point of sending two documents with the same content to the Venice Commission," Matikashvili said.

He also responded to the National Movement's bill on oligarchic governance, noting that it is focused on protecting oligarchs, not on de-oligarchization.

US Ambassador Kelly Degnan commented on the bill on de-oligarchization yesterday.

“Well, of course, that’s very good advice. When it is coming from the European Commission delegation that is working with Georgia on meeting these recommendations, it’s very important advice. I think there’s some confusion because this law, the version that was drafted in Ukraine, was withdrawn from the Venice Commission. So, there is currently no request to the Venice Commission to review any de-oligarchization laws, whether in Ukraine or in Georgia.

This is a new area of law, which is why it’s so important and valuable to have the legal experts of the Venice Commission review the draft law before it is passed. This, as I said, is a very complicated and important area of law that is new. Getting the opinion of the European legal experts that make up the Venice Commission would be a very useful step for the Georgian government to take for the Georgian Parliament to take before passing this law”, said the Ambassador.

source: IPN