Kobakhidze Says Government Ready to Meet 'Reasonable' EU Demands
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on September 1 that Georgia has submitted a formal response to the European Union and is prepared to comply with what he described as "reasonable" requests from Brussels.
"We are ready to fulfill absolutely every reasonable demand of the European Union; they must justify that their demands are reasonable, and we will fulfill all of them," Kobakhidze told reporters.
According to Kobakhidze, the document was finalized within the required deadline and has already been sent to EU officials. He added that its publication will depend on procedural decisions. "The document could be made public, but first and foremost, we were obliged to send it to the European Union, and we did so within the appropriate timeframe. We are waiting for the EU's response," he said.
He argued that while some EU demands had been met, others lacked justification. He pointed specifically to two controversial pieces of legislation, the Law on Family Values and the Law on Transparency, which have drawn strong criticism from the EU. "They cannot justify why opacity is better than transparency. They absolutely cannot justify why it is good for same-sex couples to adopt minors. Let them justify it, and we will fulfill that too," he said.
Kobakhidze framed both laws as measures to prevent what he described as harmful trends in Europe. "These are very serious trends, and we must act preventively against all of this; it is a serious problem. This is reflected in statistics and the situation in various countries. We must preemptively oppose such developments and future demands. That is exactly what this law was aimed at," he said.
Kobakhidze emphasized that the government's stance is firm on two issues: "the issue of family values and the rights of minors, and the issue of transparency." He criticized the EU for what he called a lack of dialogue. "They don't talk to us about anything; they want to twist our arms and force us using Soviet methods, which is absolutely wrong. Let them talk to us about everything, justify it, convince us. But when they don't even talk to you and try to twist your arm, that is not a European approach - it is a Soviet approach," he said.
