Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European office of Vestnik Kavkaza
Professor Hoeve Halbach, an expert on the Caucasus region at the Berlin Foundation of Science and Politics (SWP), has published an analytical article on the European integration of Georgia. The political scientist notes that there are some obstacles which prevent quick implementation of the requirements on reforms, which are demanded from Georgia within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Program.
According to Halbach, one such obstacle is the continuing struggle between the former and the current ruling teams. “Moreover, there are significant splits inside the ruling Georgian Dream coalition. Serious devaluation of the national currency confirms the economic problems which have faced the country. Internal political conflicts and devaluation of the national currency led to the fact that recent public opinion polls show that the number of citizens who think that the country has chosen a wrong course for development is growing,” the professor thinks.
At the same time, Halbach stresses that Georgia takes a more beneficial initial position on implementation of the association agreement with the EU than Moldova, with its weak ruling pro-European coalition, and Ukraine, where military activities are taking place in the east.
Georgia has built a constructive and effective dialogue between the authorities and civic society. And despite the whole criticism of former president Saakashvili for his authoritarian behavior, reforms of the police and the state management service were conducted successfully there. “There is real struggle against corruption in the country, and these are not just words,” Halbach writes.
According to the SWP analyst, some reforms which Georgia should hold are very expensive, and they demand foreign support not only for the state structures of Georgia, but also private economic actors. First of all this concerns the agricultural sphere, which can fail in meeting the sanitary requirements of food security which exist in Europe. “All transformational countries which have signed the association agreement with the EU face this problem. But it is bigger for Georgia. More than half of the population of the country is involved in agriculture; even though it provides only 8% of the annual GDP of Georgia,” the political scientist concludes.
