A. Whereas the democratic backsliding in Georgia has dramatically accelerated since the parliamentary elections of 26 October 2024; B. Whereas on 28 November 2024, Georgian Dream’s Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would suspend its EU integration process despite the country’s having been granted candidate status in December 2023, plunging the country into a full-fledged constitutional, political and human rights crisis; C. Whereas a new wave of financial terror has been initiated with protesters and political opponents being fined excessively, pushing the total amount of fines past 18 million Georgian lari; whereas blanket asset freezes have been imposed on foundations helping protesters and public servants who are being systematically dismissed for their support for pro-EU protests; D. Whereas Georgia’s illegitimate one-party “parliament” has created an investigative commission and proclaimed non-cooperation punishable by imprisonment, in order to weaponise legal mechanisms for the prosecution of democratic political forces, most specifically the United National Movement; E. Whereas despite international condemnation, the illegitimate Georgian government has not brought a single law-enforcement official to justice; F. Whereas the illegitimate government continues to hold 52 political prisoners hostage (full list below), including independent female journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, who faces four to seven years in prison; G. Whereas Mikheil Jinjolia, a member of Georgia’s globally sanctioned judicial clan, used an outdated measure of staggering sentences to impose a 12.5-year sentence on Mikheil Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia, who has already spent over three years in political imprisonment; H. Whereas on 27 January 2025, the Council decided to suspend parts of the EU-Georgia visa-facilitation agreement for Georgian diplomats and officials; whereas several EU Member States, including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany and Czechia, have imposed bilateral sanctions; I. Whereas on 29 January 2025, Georgian Dream announced that it would withdraw its delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) after PACE demanded new, genuinely democratic parliamentary elections, the release of political prisoners and accountability for perpetrators of violence; Therefore, the European People’s Party: 1. Reiterates its solidarity with the people of Georgia for their legitimate democratic rights and for a European future and for their fight against Russia’s hybrid warfare; 2. Expresses deep regret that the Georgian Dream party failed to use the historic opportunity granted to Georgia, as a candidate country, to progress on its European integration path, noting that European integration is supported by the majority of the population; 3. Condemns the actions of Georgian Dream, its continued decline into authoritarianism and drift towards the Russian orbit, and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, the names of which are listed herein; calls on Georgian Dream to immediately halt the execution of all repressive legislation and to put an end to the terror against its own citizens; 4. Condemns the campaign of attacks by the ‘‘Georgian authorities’’ against reputable civil society organisations, independent media and political opponents; 5. Demands an independent, transparent and impartial investigation into police brutality and the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators — to hold perpetrators accountable before the law; 6. Calls on Georgian Dream to set a specific date for the conduct of new, free, fair and competitive parliamentary elections, with state institutions, including the Central Election Commission, functioning free of political interference rather than in a condition of state capture; 7. Calls on the European Council to define and enforce a clear and coherent Georgia policy guided by two key principles: (a) cutting the regime’s financial lifelines, including requests from EU Member-State governments to all relevant financial institutions to suspend financial cooperation with the illegitimate government until new parliamentary elections are held; and (b) sanctioning the regime’s ruling, financial and propaganda elites; 8. Calls on the European Commission to review the implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement in light of the breach of Georgia’s obligations regarding the general principles laid down in Article 2: namely, respect for democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms; 9. Welcomes the Council’s decision to suspend visa-free travel for Georgian diplomats and officials as a first step — and stresses that Georgian Dream is fully responsible for the consequences regarding the possible suspension of the visa-free regime for Georgian citizens — if the relevant benchmarks and standards on democratic governance and freedoms are not met; 10. Calls on all EU Member States and likeminded international partners to immediately introduce coordinated bilateral personal sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili and against his family members, companies and network of enablers, and to freeze all Ivanishvili’s assets within the EU; calls on the European Council to pursue measures necessary to cut off Ivanishvii’s Kartu Bank from SWIFT and Visa/MasterCard networks and to impose sectoral sanctions targeting businesses that support the regime, particularly those dealing in cooper ores and non-ferrous metals. 11. Calls for the EU and its Member States to impose coordinated bilateral personal sanctions on the officials and political leaders responsible for democratic backsliding, electoral fraud, human rights violations and the persecution of political opponents and activists — and to extend these sanctions to judges passing politically motivated sentences, to law enforcement officials and financial enablers who tacitly or openly support the regime, and to the owners of regime-aligned media outlets; 12. Welcomes the Commission’s decision to cease all budgetary support to the Georgian authorities, and calls on the European Council to work with relevant EU institutions to ensure that the 120 million euros suspended as EU financial assistance to the Georgian government is swiftly restructured and redirected to support civil society and independent media organisations in Georgia; highlights the urgency of the need to support civil society in the light of growing repression and the suspension of activities of the US Agency for International Development (USAID); 13. Calls for the EU and its Member States, as well as national parliaments and interparliamentary institutions, not to recognise the legitimacy of Georgian Dream’s one-party parliament or its appointed president and to recognise President Salome Zourabishvili as the only legitimate representative of the Georgian people. The publication of this document received