TBILISI, July 8 – Georgia’s parliament speaker has warned the European Union not to create second-class members if it changes voting rules for future entrants.
Shalva Papuashvili made the comment on Tuesday after a meeting in Serbia with parliament speakers from EU candidate countries, where they discussed a new initiative that would restrict veto rights for new member states after they join the bloc, Interpressnews reported.
Papuashvili said the speakers exchanged views on the proposal and that they shared the same position on different levels of membership.
“You cannot be a member of an organization and be a second-class member of the organization,” Papuashvili said.
Several countries, including Georgia, are formally candidates for membership, while there is also a discussion within the EU about how its institutions would function if more countries join.
Papuashvili said that if the EU wants to change voting procedures, the changes should apply equally to all members, not only to new ones.
“If the European Union thinks about changing voting procedures, this should apply to everyone equally, and not in such a way that new members have fewer rights than the so-called old members,” he said.
He then used a literary reference to warn Brussels against unequal treatment.
“The European Union should not put itself in a comic situation and turn the Orwellian phrase, ‘All are equal, but some are more equal,’ into reality,” Papuashvili said.
