EU may suspend visa-free travel for Georgians if election not free and fair

By Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) - The European Union may consider temporarily suspending its visa-free regime with Georgia if an Oct. 26 parliamentary election in the EU candidate country is not free, fair and peaceful, the bloc's ambassador to Tbilisi said on Friday.

Georgia's ties with the West have soured in recent months, with the U.S. and European countries accusing the Georgian government of authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies.

"All the options are on the table, including a temporary suspension of the visa-free regime with Georgia," the EU's ambassador to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, told reporters.

Georgian citizens have been able to visit Europe's Schengen zone of countries without a visa for up to 90 days since 2017.

If Georgia's election is not deemed to be free and fair, Herczynski said, the EU may take similar measures to those adopted against Belarus, an authoritarian ally of Russia that is under sanctions after a 2020 election that Western countries and Belarusian opposition activists say was rigged.

Though the ruling Georgian Dream party says it wants the south Caucasus country to join both the EU and NATO, it has moved in the past two years to deepen relations with Russia.

Billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely seen as Georgia's most powerful person, has accused the West of seeking to drag his country into war with Russia.

Last week Ivanishvili suggested that Tbilisi should apologise for a brief 2008 war with Russia that led to Moscow recognising two rebel Georgian regions, Georgian media reported.

The EU granted Georgia candidate status last December but its membership bid was effectively frozen after Tbilisi approved in June a law on foreign agents that the West says is authoritarian and Russia-inspired.

Western countries have also criticised a "family values" bill approved by lawmakers this week that curbs LGBT rights.

Opinion polls show that the ruling party remains the single most popular party, though it has lost ground since 2020, when it won a narrow majority.

(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)