Georgia to abolish anti-corruption body amid souring ties with EU

By Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgia plans to abolish an anti-corruption body established on the recommendation of the European Union, the country's parliamentary speaker said on Monday, as relations between Tbilisi and Brussels come under increasing strain.

The South Caucasus country secured EU candidate status in December 2023, but Brussels accused Georgia this month of "serious democratic backsliding" and said it was now considered a candidate nation "in name only".

Announcing the plan to scrap the Anti-Corruption Bureau, parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili, a senior member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, told a briefing that the goal was to "optimise state resources".

"As a result of consultations with the government, a common view was formed that this function better fits the State Audit Office within the constitutional framework of public governance, as a higher and more independent constitutional body," he said.

Papuashvili said the Bureau would merge with the State Audit Office from March 2, the Interpress news agency reported.

Set up in November 2022 as part of Georgia's bid to join the EU, the Bureau was tasked with developing anti-corruption plans, strengthening whistleblower protection and overseeing the financing of political parties, among other duties.

A group of more than 50 Georgian non-governmental organisations said in an open letter last week that the Anti-Corruption Bureau was failing in its mandate and was "being used as a tool to persecute independent civil society organisations".

Critics of Georgian Dream say it has become increasingly authoritarian since the start of the war in Ukraine. The ruling party suspended Georgia's EU accession talks last year, though it says it still wants to join the bloc.

Georgian Dream has cracked down on opposition politicians, jailing several, while police have ramped up arrests of protesters attending regular anti-government demonstrations.

Last month, the ruling party signalled it would soon file a lawsuit to the Constitutional Court seeking to ban the country's three main opposition parties on the grounds they pose "a real threat to the constitutional order".

(Reporting by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)