US may impose sanctions on the Georgian politicians and revise aid programmes if the law on “foreign agents” is adopted in its current form, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien said on TV Pirveli.
In an interview with the media, O’Brien said:
If this law proceeds as it does now – incompatible with EU standards, undermining democracy, restrictions will follow on the part of the US.
The US could review economic and military aid programmes, as well as impose personal sanctions on those involved in passing the law. O’Brien also added:
If the law is not changed so that it meets EU standards and this kind of rhetoric against the West continues, of course it will be very dangerous for our bilateral relations.
O’Brien also emphasised that the use of violence against peaceful protesters is unacceptable, he called on Georgian politicians to abandon repression of protesters.
Meanwhile, European Commission spokesman for foreign affairs and security policy Peter Stano said that Georgia’s adoption of the draft law on “foreign agents” would be an obstacle on the country’s path to the European Union.
He stressed that Georgia was an EU candidate and urged the country’s authorities to return to the European path and fulfil all the commitments they had agreed to take when they applied for it.
Adoption of the Foreign Agents Law
The Georgian parliament has approved the draft law on “foreign agents” in the third and final reading. 84 MPs were in favour of the law, while 30 were against it. Georgian President Salome Zourabishvili, who had previously promised to veto it, must now sign the law and the parliamentary majority has enough votes to override the head of state’s veto.
Mass protests against the new law on “foreign agents” have already erupted several times in Georgia. The bill obliges non-governmental organisations and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence”.
The initiative was first introduced in parliament in the spring of 2023, but was later withdrawn due to mass protests. In the new version, nothing has changed except the wording: instead of “agent of foreign influence”, the document uses the term “an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.
However, the US has had its own law on foreign agents since the first half of the 20th century. The 32nd President of the US, Franklin Roosevelt, signed the American Foreign Agents Act into law in the summer of 1938. The law required foreign agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a “political or quasi-political capacity” to disclose their relationship with the government of another country.
EU countries also have similar laws. On 27 March 2024, the French National Assembly approved a bill on the prevention of foreign interference. According to the bill, France should have its own register of foreign agents.
