Georgia suspends EU membership talks until the end of 2028

The prime minister of the former Soviet republic of Georgia has announced that the government will suspend talks on joining the European Union. Pro-EU demonstrators took to the streets after the news and clashed with police.

Irakli Kobakhidze said on Thursday that the country “will not put the issue of opening negotiations with the EU on the agenda until the end of 2028.”

He also said that Georgia will refuse EU budget subsidies until then.

Georgia has long been trying to join the bloc. But the EU effectively halted Georgia’s membership request after the pro-Russian ruling Georgian Dream party had a controversial law passed in June this year amid mass protests.

The law requires organizations that receive 20 percent or more of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.” The EU said the law conflicts with the bloc’s core principles and values.

In addition, the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution calling for a repeat of last month’s Georgian parliamentary elections, citing serious electoral violations. The ruling party had claimed a majority, but the opposition rejected the results, claiming the vote had been rigged.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling party, condemned the prime minister’s announcement and accused the government of declaring “war” on the population.

In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, a large number of demonstrators gathered outside parliament and elsewhere, holding EU flags and chanting slogans such as ‘Russian slaves’.