EU countries push for sanctions on Georgia over ‘Russian law’

10 comments

1. [deleted]

2. >In an urgent opinion the Venice Commission, Europe’s pre-eminent legal and constitutional law expert body affiliated with the Council of Europe has called to repeal Georgia’s foreign agents law.
   >
   >“The Venice Commission has analysed the compatibility of the Law with the applicable international and European standards, based on principles developed in its numerous previous opinions on a similar matter. It concludes that the restrictions set by the Law to the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and privacy are incompatible with the strict test set out in Articles 8(2), 10(2), and 11(2) of the ECHR and Article 17(2), 19(2) and 22(2) of the ICCPR as they do not meet the requirements of legality, legitimacy, necessity in a democratic society and proportionality, as well as with the principle of non-discrimination set out in Article 14 of the ECHR.
   >
   >The Law, under the alleged aim of ensuring transparency, has the objective effect of risking the stigmatising, silencing and eventually elimination of associations and media which receive even a low part of their funds from abroad. **A strong risk is created that the associations and media which come to be affected will be those who are critical of the government, so that their removal would adversely affect open, informed public debate, pluralism and democracy.**
   >
   >Venice Commission strongly recommends repealing the Law in its current form, as its fundamental flaws will involve significant negative consequences for the freedoms of association and expression, the right to privacy, the right to participate in public affairs as well as the prohibition of discrimination. Ultimately, this will affect open, informed public debate, pluralism and democracy,” @VeniceComm stated in its urgent opinion on “foreign agents” bill.

   https://twitter.com/FormulaGe/status/1793206021847916767

   >40. As concerns the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the Venice Commission in particular has previously62 explained that the FARA was originally enacted in 1938 with a view to registering individuals or entities acting at the direction and control of a foreign government; its scope was broadened in 2016 to focus on countering foreign interference in elections.63 Under the FARA, one does not have to register simply because one receives funds from a foreign source. Rather one must be an agent of a foreign principal, meaning that one acts at the specific direction and control, and on the behalf, of a foreign principal. In addition, the FARA was not enacted to regulate specifically civil society organisations or media representatives but any entity, non-profit or commercial, or individual acting as a legal agent on behalf of a foreign principal,64 requiring a very high degree of control between the foreign entity/individual and the agent. While many US NGOs and media organisations receive foreign grants and support, the US does not generally require them to register as foreign agents under FARA. Only a small proportion, around 5%, of
   those registered under FARA are non-profit organisations, primarily branches of foreign political parties.65 In sharp contrast to FARA and similar laws, **the Georgian Law presupposes that anyone receiving foreign support will act in pursuit of the interests of the foreign funder (referred to as “foreign power”), by triggering an automatic, unevidenced and irrebuttable presumption of some form of influence or control of the work of the recipient by the donor.**

   https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-PI(2024)013-e

3. Can this be considered as: “Give us political power in your country or we will put sanctions on your country” ?

4. Keep em coming bois!

5. Dammit, Europe, stop dictating everyone else how they should live. It’s not your business.

   Remember when Putin offered a loan to Yanukovich to make him abstain from joining EU and everybody was “how dares he! Russia has no right to influence Ukrainian politics!”. And now here’s this.

   UPD: so many people with imperial thinking here, lol

6. When will the EU stop expandng though?

7. Feels like western regimes are trying their hardest to convince people that Georgia does in fact have a big foreign influence problem.

8. US and EU countries also have similar “russian” law against foreighn intervention.

9. Typical. Give people sanctions for their trouble.

10. Wow. Troll armies downvoting all the comments on this one hard…