Geopolitical Europe Pulse: protests in Georgia and EU enlargement

17 May 2024

The Geopolitical Europe Pulse is a compilation of articles and resources on a specific topic of current affairs with particular relevance for Europe’s, and the EU’s, role in the world. This week’s edition brings you a roundup of content on the protests in Georgia.

What’s happening? Following weeks of protests, Georgia’s ruling party has adopted the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence”, which will force media and NGOs to register as organisations “bearing the influence as a foreign power” when they receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors. This article in The Guardian summarises the answers to the most important questions.

A headache for Brussels: Georgia was granted EU candidate status in December 2023, but the new law will complicate relations between Brussels and Tbsilisi. In this piece for Le Monde,  Faustine Vincent and Philippe Jacqué explain why the pro-Russian stance of the Georgian government is “a headache for Brussels” and how it tests the EU’s credibility.

The challenges for enlargement: It’s not only the new law, but also broader domestic and geopolitical issues that will make the path to EU membership a long and complicated one. In other words, Georgia might become a litmus test for enlargement as a geopolitical tool of the EU. This article provides a deep-dive into the geopolitical and domestic challenges, presents the intrinsic links between the two, and outlines potential actions for the EU.