Wednesday, March 23, 2011
CE news | French Ambassador to Georgia’s Controversial Remarks
The French Ambassador to Georgia, Eric Fournier, caused a stir during the presentation of a monitoring report: “European Neighbourhood Policy: Implementation of the Objectives of the EU-Georgia Action Plan” in Tbilisi on March 15 2011.
| The Ambassador has said that his words were taken out of context and have, in fact, only appeared on the Georgian language web site Radio Freedom. There is a Google translation of the proceedings here. The same remarks appear to have been omitted from the English language version of the site.
While the following may not be a verbatim transcription of what he said, and whether his words were taken out of context or not, a certain sense of frustration can be detected which was echoed by what Hansjörg Haber, the German head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) said on March 23 2011, questioning “whether Georgia wants to win diplomatic battles to underscore again the principle of territorial integrity, or whether it wants to promote reintegration”. Haber suggested that Georgia’s persistent and repeated use of international leverage to demonstrate the continued character of the principle of territorial integrity was beginning to sound like a broken record and that “additional confirmations of the principle of territorial integrity tend to demonstrate the principle of diminishing returns”. Here is a rush transcription of the French Ambassador’s remarks: “It seems like all the efforts of the European Union have been like pouring water in the sand, that we are making absolutely no progress, and that the European Neighbourhood Policy is maybe empty or not European at all, because, what is left of the European values in what we heard? Almost nothing. Lack of freedom of media, total contempt for labour and trade unions, lack of progress in economy. It’s a disaster.I’m afraid after hearing you, I have the impression of getting a description of a neo-bolshevik state with absolutely no freedom. And when I heard that there is now young people for stealing 8 [Georgia lari’s worth of] goods, throw them into jail, it is absolutely scary. So I do hope that we are going to shake up our vision of this very gloom picture that you gave us. It means for us Europeans a total reassessment of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Maybe we should question the validity of what we have been doing. We should start working in a different way, because if it goes on like that, the result of the European Neighbourhood Policy will be utterly disappointing for Georgians. But as you just said, the society will keep on ignoring the major orientation of the European way of Georgia. So I think it’s about time we maybe organise more seminars of this kind, but maybe putting on the table concrete steps to change the situation. Because what you have just been telling us is - I’m sorry - very depressing for any European citizen. Thank you.” |
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