BREAKING: Georgia Still 'One Step Behind' EU Candidate Status

In 2022, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, "Georgia is one step behind." And this was echoed throughout Brussels and across Europe, for Georgia was indeed at least one step behind where they had been just a few years earlier. But now it's 2023, and a year has come and gone. During this time, Moldova and Ukraine have taken great strides past Georgia on their paths to EU membership. But Georgia struggles to find their place between the known threat of Russian aggression and the welcome offered by the EU and the West.

However, things have mostly stayed the same. Journalists and media members are still singled out and targeted by the ruling party. Police consistently abuse their power by failing to investigate and punish crimes. Or they regularly use authoritarian tactics against citizens to compel statements or force acquiescence under duress. Meanwhile, the ECHR continues to judge case after case in favor of plaintiffs and against the Georgian government.

One might look at Georgia from the outside and wonder what happened, but that would be like looking at wedding photos and trying to judge who was the best dancer. Because while a picture may be worth a thousand words, being there is worth infinitely more. The Georgian political situation is no exception to this, and much like a wedding celebration, one needs to experience the political dance of Georgia firsthand to understand how much of a charade it is.

And to those in Georgia who see what's happening with the politics and maneuverings of one party to the next, it's appalling. The ruling party wants to string the EU along until the next local election cycle. By doing this, they can leverage political gain from perceived accomplishments toward the 12 steps the EU has requested. However, more and more people are beginning to understand that the ruling party and their subservience to Oligarchical rule caused Georgia to fall 'one step behind' in the first place.

Despite this, opposition party members and NGOs in Georgia are frustrated by this charade and their EU counterparts' lack of direct attention to it. Meanwhile, the ruling party in Georgia claims they need to receive more praise for doing too little too late. Again, to convert Western recognition into political capital.

While the EU generally refuses to offer credit for failure, they acknowledge the meaningful efforts of nations working toward EU membership. In this case, the lack of acknowledgment or praise speaks volumes. Yet, this political grandstanding creates far worse security issues for Georgia than not attaining EU candidate status.

Specifically, any time a political body thrives on a complacent and easily misled voter base, that body is subject to non-domestic influence. Worse, suppose those politicians knowingly trade in disinformation and embrace misinformation. In this case, they become targets of foreign entities hostile to the state apparatus.

Today in Georgia, foreign influence can be seen in the conflict between stated goals and their failed actuation. The increasingly rapid collapse of democracy in Georgia is painted all over the country in the broad strokes of Russian hard and soft occupation. But the result of parliamentary apathy impacts every part of the nation.

Respectable members from every civil and government service must seek private education to improve their skill sets because the government provides little meaningful training. Meanwhile, corrupt state employees thrive on the soft benefits they receive by looking the other way at the right moment or ignoring the Georgian constitution. Through it all, the pendulum of right and wrong swings between these two ends of the spectrum, and there is no certainty as to where it will ultimately come to rest. Without the assurance of justice in a functional democracy, those who seek to protect the country from outside threats cannot guarantee national security.

One has only to look across the world at other democracies to see how many influential Georgians have left to live in less oppressive societies where they can enjoy their freedoms without fear of politically motivated prosecution. The silence is deafening in the absence of the voices these people once lent to the cause of freedom in Georgia. But if one listens carefully, one can hear something else, which is also 'one step behind' Georgia.

That something is the authoritarian step of Russian imperialism, occupying the edges of Georgian democracy in much the same way Russia illegally occupies 20% of the nation.

Source: European Court of Human Rights