The situation is unchanged and two priorities remain to be fulfilled: depolarization and de-oligarchization - there is very little time left, every minute and hour is important, given that the European Commission will make a final decision in mid-October, said the European integration program manager, representative of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, Vano Chkhikvadze told journalists.

He spoke about the assessment prepared jointly by the non-governmental sector on the implementation of 12 recommendations, the presentation of which was held at Radisson.

According to Chkhikvadze, the fulfillment of 12 recommendations is much more than mathematics and it is related to the future of Georgia.

"This is the last, 6th assessment in a row presented by the civil society. As you know, during all this time, from January until today, we have been regularly observing how the 12 priorities, which are prerequisites for granting the country candidate status, are fulfilled. According to our last assessment, one priority remains fulfilled, that is the proactive transfer of the decisions of the ECHR into our legislation. There are two priorities that are largely fulfilled or close to fulfillment: gender equality and the priority relating to the ombudsman. 7 priorities are partially implemented. These are electoral and institutional reform, independent judiciary, media independence, anti-corruption measures, vulnerable groups and civil society involvement in the decision-making process. As for what needs to be done, the situation is unchanged and two priorities remain to be implemented: depolarization and deoligarchization," said Vani Chkhikvadze.

According to him, the final decision in this process belongs to the European Union, which means that the recommendations of the European Commission and the European Union are much more important than any other assessment. According to Chkhikvadze, the government "has never cooperated" with non-governmental organizations in this process.

The authors of the report are: Democracy Research Institute, Court Watch, Georgian Democracy Initiative, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Governance Monitoring Center, Georgia’s Reforms Association, Partnership for Human Rights and Sapari.

source: IPN