Georgia to have constitution define NATO and EU wish

Manana Kobakhidze, Vice Speaker of Parliament. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The governing coalition in Georgia accepts a demand made by President Saakashvili’s National Movement party to write the country’s foreign policy course into the constitution.

This means that Georgia’s aspirations to become a member of NATO and EU will be expressly stated in the constitution.

The exact wording is still unclear, as Georgian Dream sets as a condition for going along with the unusual move that a constitutional commission decides the issue. Vice Speaker of Parliament Manana Kobakhidze said at a press conference Wednesday that the commission will include local and international experts, constitutional experts, scientists and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

In addition, the Georgian Dream coalition, which won a surprise victory in a parliamentary election four and a half months ago, has proposed an agreement with the National Movement about foreign policy goals listed in fourteen bullet points and distributed in the national media for public discussion.

She said the coalition sees Georgia’s foreign affairs vector as being aspirations to become member of EU and NATO, and if necessary, this may be written into the preamble to the constitution.

Kobakhidze says that such an addition to the constitution must be made on the basis of research into how this is done in other countries, so that it happens in a civilized way and Georgia doesn’t become an exception.

The party of President Saakashvili has claimed that Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s government is planning to change the country’s western course, and demands to have constitutional guarantees that Georgia is to seek membership in NATO and the EU.

Also other changes will be made to the constitution, but the governing coalition lacks nine votes in parliament to pass amendments alone.

The last few days there have been attempts at negotiations between the two parties. On Monday, the parliament speaker met with the president and the next day he also met with one of the National Movement party leaders.