STRASBURG - On the verge of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s meeting, scheduled for January 25 in Strasburg, the PACE Monitoring Committee has circulated its report on the situation in Georgia, rating the new authorities’ anti-corruption controls as fair, but at the same time showing displeasure at the methods used to control corruption.

The Monitoring Committee has also pointed out Georgia’s failure to comply with the Council of Europe’s recommendations. Specifically, the matter concerns restrictions of Adzharia’s rights as an autonomous republic; the President’s overly-broad authority, and the limited power of the Georgian parliament and government; the inadmissibility of such practices as remedial transactions, whereby corrupt officials are exempt from criminal responsibility by transferring a certain sum to the budget; human rights violations, and so on.

The PACE Monitoring Committee’s report was resonant throughout the country. “It’s simply ridiculous and disgraceful that so much ado should be made about the Council of Europe’s recommendations. These people have failed to understand so far that Georgia has never before received, and is not likely to obtain in the future, such international support as it has now,” Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said. At the same time, he stressed: “It’s a good thing that various organizations are giving us advice, but it’s ultimately us who are going to make the decisions.”

Georgian politicians, both supporters of the party in office and its opponents, were roused to anxiety by the draft resolution on Georgia drawn up by the Council of Europe Monitoring Committee, as it contained a number of sharp criticisms, Novye Izvestiya reported today. The new Georgian authorities haven’t got used to being censured by their western partners so far – as a rule, it was the government of Eduard Shevardnadze that was criticized, the article explains.

According to Elena Tevtoradze, head of the Georgian Parliament’s committee for the protection of human rights and civil integration, who has been a PACE member for three years, there is nothing drastic in such estimates by the Council of Europe. “If in 2001, the Council of Europe believed nothing was being altered in Georgia and all the recommendations were being ignored, then Georgia was stagnant; presently, the overall mood of the estimates is nevertheless optimistic,” she reminded. “The document highlights some positive changes in the country, along with the drawbacks. I agree with every single remark, and I believe the resolution is reasonable, specific and feasible. In short, it’s a ‘candy’ that we will have to swallow correctly,” she said.

Opposition representatives, who believe that a comparison with a “pill”, and a bitter one at that, would be more adequate, do not agree with the estimate, the newspaper informs. Serious criticisms by the Council of Europe Monitoring Committee apply to the changes in the constitution adopted by Georgia on February 6, 2004. This disturbed the balance of power in the country, which now faces a powerful president, a strong government and a weak parliament, with almost no opposition in the latter. The opposition are so few in number that their voices cannot be heard.

It should be noted, that President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili intends to discuss at the PACE meeting in Strasburg on January 25 Georgia’s initiatives for peaceful settlement of the conflict in Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. Yesterday, he told journalists: “There are other platforms from which we could have voiced our initiatives, but we picked Strasburg.” The Georgian President did not elaborate on what particular initiatives were implied, but, according to preliminary information from a source in the State Chancellery of Georgia, Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia will be offered some political status as parts of the consolidated state of Georgia.

Saakashvili will also deliver a report on how Georgia is performing regarding the commitments it assumed before the Council of Europe. The Georgian President also stated that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s newly elected President, will be paying a visit to Strasburg at the same time, too– the main reason why the decision was taken to publicize the Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia initiatives at PACE.