Who will sign the EU association agreement for Georgia?

By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

The one-day visit of President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy to Georgia has concluded with the announcement of the date for signing the EU association agreement. The document will be signed at the European Parliament in Brussels on June 27. Leaders of all EU states will attend the ceremony.

However, Georgian politicians cannot decide who should put the signature on the document. In terms of legitimacy, it does not matter. But it is essential for the development of domestic policy in Georgia. The Georgian Dream coalition shows irritation over the issue, its leaders evade clear answers to related questions.

Avtandil Demetrashvili, one of the authors of the Constitution, ex-president of the Constitutional Court, told Vestnik Kavkaza that “the president has representative functions, he is authorized to sign any international agreement, but he may also give the prime minister such an order.”

The delicacy of the situation is peculiar for the fact that it is a “historical” moment and needs to be formalized accordingly, i.e. the president must be present at the ceremony together with 28 European leaders. If the prime minister signs the document, the process will look strange. In that case, the president has no need to visit Brussels. Then what do they do with this momentous act that has already been highlighted as “the most important event of the past decades?”

Georgian politicians are struggling to resolve the dilemma. But why has it become a problem in the first place? Why can't the prime minister and the president find a compromise? It must be the “French model” of separation of powers: the prime minister has the real power in Georgia, but if he signs a document of such significance, the medium and low-level post-Soviet Georgian bureaucracy, as well as the majority of the establishment, will take it as a signal for reorientation towards the president, who has been calling for more respect towards his authority. This will certainly cause disarray and weaken the government in general. It will be complicated for Georgian politicians to find a way out of this labyrinth of problems in a tough and uncertain situation.