Prepared by Messenger Staff
EU Says Georgia Not Invited to Enlargement Forum, Attends Connectivity Meeting at Lower Level
The European Commission confirmed that Tbilisi was not on the guest list for next week's Enlargement Forum, while Georgian authorities were invited to a separate ministerial meeting on connectivity, though at a reduced level of representation.
Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier told reporters the omission was deliberate. Answering a question from Euroscope at today's press briefing, he said: "I can confirm that Georgia has not been invited." Brussels, he added, had always kept an "open and constructive approach to dialogue" aimed at finding a way out of the current crisis.
Engagement with the Georgian authorities nonetheless remained limited, Mercier said, until they demonstrated "a firm willingness to change their current course," as set out in the Enlargement Report.
Regarding the connectivity meeting, scheduled for next Monday, he said Georgia's participation in such formats was decided "on a case-by-case basis, taking the EU's interests into account." Georgian officials had been invited, he confirmed, but at a lower level of representation.
For Georgia Proposes Separate Criminal Offences for Scam Call Centres, Organizers and Protectors
The opposition party For Georgia is registering a bill in Parliament that would make the operation of scam call centres a standalone offence and extend liability to organizers, recruiters, facilitators and those who provide protection.
MP Sopo Khorguani said the party's faction was submitting the initiative on November 9. The activities of scam call centres have become "a form of transnational crime," she said, with schemes run through digital technologies and social media targeting elderly people in Georgia and abroad, at considerable cost to the country's reputation.
Khorguani said young people make up most of those directly involved, and that many may not realize the seriousness of what they are doing. "We must save our young people," she said, adding that a separate provision would make them "think twice" before joining such operations.
Liability, she said, must reach beyond those making the calls to the people who recruit them and shield the business from prosecution.
Khorguani called on Georgian Dream to back the bill if it is serious about ending scam call centre operations. She also referred to Bera Ivanishvili's statement that he intends to sue those who accuse him of protecting call centres, saying that if the ruling party wants these operations stopped, it should support the legislation.
