The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) warned on Tuesday that tensions over Georgia’s controversial “foreign agents” bill could harm the country’s economy and investor confidence.
The bill, which is making its way through the Georgian legislature, would require organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents of influence, a requirement that opponents call authoritarian and inspired by the Kremlin.
The bill has sparked protests in recent days, while Brussels and Washington have urged Tbilisi to scrap the legislation or risk jeopardizing its chances of joining the European Union and envisioning a more Euro-Atlantic future. wide.
“We were surprised to see it come back, and we are concerned about the dynamics of what is involved,” Odile Renaud-Basso, president of the EBRD, told reporters at a press briefing ahead of the annual meetings of the lender which will begin in Armenia on May 14.
Georgia has benefited economically from progress in reforms, Renaud-Basso said.
“But the new trend and the tension around this (bill) could have an impact, an economic impact, on the private sector and the willingness to invest in the country, which is why we are in contact with our partners ” she said.
