{"id":37336,"date":"2024-11-28T20:26:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T17:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=37336"},"modified":"2024-11-28T20:26:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T17:26:52","slug":"georgia-freezes-eu-membership-talks-accuses-bloc-of-blackmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/georgia-freezes-eu-membership-talks-accuses-bloc-of-blackmail\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Freezes EU Membership Talks, Accuses Bloc of &#8220;Blackmail&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-a:r3697043984921843154\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\"><strong>Sudan Events &#8211; Agencies<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"m#msg-a:r3697043984921843154-content\" class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On Thursday, Georgia froze its EU membership talks for four years, accusing the European Union of &#8220;blackmail,&#8221; as reported by the Associated Press.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The European Parliament condemned Georgia&#8217;s parliamentary elections, held in late October, for failing to meet international standards. In a resolution adopted on Thursday, it called for a reorganization of the elections within a year.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">A significant majority, 444 votes, supported the resolution, while 72 voted against it, and 82 abstained, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Members of the European Parliament criticized &#8220;numerous and serious electoral violations&#8221; reported during the October 26 elections.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The elections resulted in a victory for the ruling Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, which the opposition accuses of pursuing authoritarian and pro-Russian policies.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The MEPs highlighted confirmed cases of &#8220;intimidation, vote manipulation, and fraud,&#8221; rejecting any recognition of the election results, which they described as a &#8220;manifestation of ongoing democratic backsliding&#8221; for which the ruling party is entirely responsible.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Pro-Western opposition parties and Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili rejected the election results.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">President Zourabichvili, an opponent of the Georgian Dream party, filed a constitutional appeal to annul the results, calling the new parliament &#8220;unconstitutional.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On Thursday, the European Parliament urged the EU to impose &#8220;personal sanctions&#8221; on Georgian leaders, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Tbilisi Mayor and Georgian Dream Secretary General Kakha Kaladze, and Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The European Parliament also expressed support for President Zourabichvili, commending her efforts to &#8220;restore the country&#8217;s democratic trajectory.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sudan Events &#8211; Agencies On Thursday, Georgia froze its EU membership talks for four years, accusing the European Union of &#8220;blackmail,&#8221; as reported by the Associated Press. The European Parliament condemned Georgia&#8217;s parliamentary elections, held in late October, for failing to meet international standards. In a resolution adopted on Thursday, it called for a reorganization &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37343,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37336\/revisions\/37343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}