EU agrees to send €120 mln to Georgia to "support civil society"

The foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) have agreed to redirect €120m of aid intended for the authorities to "support civil society". This was announced on November 18 by EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell at a press conference following a meeting of foreign ministers of the 27 countries of the community in Brussels.

"Canceled aid to the Georgian AF from the European Peace Fund, as well as €120 million of direct support to the Georgian government. They will be redirected to programs to support Georgian civil society," RIA Novosti quoted the head of Eurodiplomacy as saying.

In addition, Borrel added that a political mission will be sent to Georgia to study what happened in the country, referring to the situation around the parliamentary elections held in the republic.

Earlier in the day, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called for repeat parliamentary elections in the country, and the results of the recent vote, according to which the ruling Georgian Dream party won, to be canceled.

On November 16, the head of Georgia's Central Election Commission Giorgi Kalandarishvili signed the final protocol of the parliamentary elections. According to the final results, the ruling Georgian Dream party won with 53.93% of votes and won 89 mandates out of 150 in the parliament. More than 2.1 million people out of 3.5 million citizens with the right to vote participated in the voting. Some 34,900 ballots were invalidated.

On November 13, Georgian Dream submitted evidence of violations by the opposition during the parliamentary elections to the prosecutor's office. It became known on November 1 that the party was going to hand over to the prosecutor's office evidence of theft of votes by the opposition during the parliamentary elections. Later, on November 6, the ruling party said that more than 400 such cases were revealed.

Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on October 26. According to the Central Election Commission of the republic, Georgian Dream won. However, three opposition political forces - United National Movement, Coalition for Change and Strong Georgia - refused to recognize the election results.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili also expressed her disagreement with the results of the vote and called on her fellow citizens to protest. For two days, on October 28 and 29, the opposition marched in Georgia against the election results.