This Affects You Too Campaign about Granting Political Rights to Citizens of EU Member-States

On April 5, 2011, the Christian-Democratic Movement initiated a constitutional amendment granting citizens of EU member-states with the rights to pursue political activities and participate in elections. More specifically, current draft of the initiative of the parliamentary majority allows for election of a citizen of any EU member-state as Georgia’s member of the parliament, if s/he was born and has been living in Georgia for the past 10 years. The initiative was also endorsed by the parliamentary majority.

The initiative also envisages a possibility of granting these individuals with political rights, including the right to hold a political office, which is currently exclusively enjoyed by citizens of Georgia.

NGOs participating in This Affects You Too campaign deem the initiative as unwarranted and we view it as an approach towards the Constitution of Georgia that envisages tailoring the supreme law of the country on individual circumstances and persons. Granting non-citizens of Georgia with political rights, including the right to be elected as a Georgian MP is unacceptable to us. The right to make important political decisions that affect everyday life of the country should only be reserved for citizens of Georgia. The proposed amendment will put sovereignty of Georgia at risk as it would allow foreign citizens to interfere with internal affairs of Georgia. In light of this very argument, foreign citizens are prohibited from funding political parties.

We believe that similar initiatives jeopardize the importance of the Constitution, which will negatively reflect on the rule of law in the country.

We call on each and every member of the Parliament of Georgia to respect the Constitution of Georgia and the sovereignty of the country, reject the wrongful initiative and not to use the mandate of a member of the legislative authority for resolving artificially produced problems by using unjustified means.