Ireland should support the eastern european nation of Georgia on its journey to become an EU member state, a Fianna Fáil Senator has said, saying that “Ireland has very friendly relations with Georgia.”
Senator Malcolm Byrne was speaking during Commencement Matters in the Seanad this week, and raised the issue of ongoing anti-government protests in Georgia over what he described as an “increasing crackdown on any form of dissent within that country.”
He said that the ruling Georgian party were seeking to “stifle all opposition” ahead of the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, and that there had been a “crackdown” on various groups, including “journalists and opposition politicians”, who Byrne said had been “targeted” and “imprisoned” by the State.
“I applaud the bravery of the demonstrators in Georgia in the past two weeks,” he said.
“They have been met with tear gas and rubber bullets, even though these are peaceful demonstrations.”
He went on to say that Ireland should support Georgia joining the bloc, along with Moldova and Ukraine.
“Given that Georgia was granted EU candidate status in December 2023, that polls consistently show over 80% of Georgians would like to join the European Union, and that Ireland has always been a strong supporter of enlargement by following the process, it is a serious concern that we are seeing the oppression of human rights in Georgia,” he said.
“I believe we should continue to support Georgia in its moves towards membership of the European Union but, as we have done with Belarus and other countries, we need to point out where there are serious abuses of human rights and efforts to undermine democracy.
“We are 20 years on from the EU’s biggest enlargement when ten countries, mostly in central and eastern Europe, joined the EU family…at some stage, it would be great to see Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia all in membership, having followed the process and having agreed to all of the necessary rules that apply to accession.”
Notably, Georgia is a well-known source of illegal immigration into Ireland, with then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying in November 2019 that asylum seekers coming to Ireland with fake documents from Georgia and Albania was the “big driver” of a surge in asylum claims seem that year.
Leo Varadkar says Georgia and Albania driving rise in asylum-seeker numbers https://t.co/LYnCZWaQrd
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) November 3, 2019
The news comes as Fine Gael’s recently released European election manifesto calls for 7 new member states to be added to the European Union, including Ukraine.
Fine Gael’s European election manifesto says the party will be calling to add 7 new member states to the EU as a matter of "urgency" – particularly countries from one specific region:https://t.co/ZhdhVtOeFq
— gript (@griptmedia) May 29, 2024