Clear grounds for sanctions amid Georgia protests, EU envoy says

Violent clashes in Georgia between the police and protesters in recent weeks and "unacceptable" police brutality against the demonstrators present clear grounds for the European Union to impose sanctions, the EU ambassador to Georgia said on Monday.

"What has been happening in Georgia over the last 12 days clearly calls for sanctions and I know that work is already underway to prepare sanctions," Pawel Herczynski told reporters, according to the Interpress news agency.

He said Brussels could present a sanctions package on Dec. 16.

Georgia has been roiled by protests since last month, when the ruling Georgian Dream party said the government would suspend talks on EU accession until 2028.

The decision outraged many in the South Caucasus country, where the idea of EU accession is popular. Over 100 serving Georgian diplomats signed an open letter criticising the government's move, and several Georgian ambassadors resigned their posts.

Pro-EU demonstrators have rallied nightly since the government's announcement on Nov. 28, facing off against riot police who have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse them.

Scores of demonstrators and dozens of police officers have been injured and at least 300 people have been arrested.

Georgia's public ombudsman has accused the police of inflicting torture on the protesters. The government has defended its response.

Herczynski said on Monday the level of "brutality" wielded against demonstrators was "absolutely unacceptable".

"Let me say very loudly and clearly on behalf of the European Union that we see the people on the streets, we hear their voices and we are shocked by the violence," he said.

"I think most of us in EU capitals, as well as in EU institutions, have reached a stage where we need to act."

Georgia has been one of the former Soviet Union's most pro-Western successor states, but critics accuse the government of abandoning that course and steering it closer towards Russia. The crisis is being closely watched in Moscow, Brussels and Washington.

Brussels has repeatedly expressed its disfavour with the government in Tbilisi but has so far stopped short of imposing sanctions or restricting visa-free travel to the EU, which Georgians have enjoyed since 2017.

Britain on Monday said it would limit engagement with the Georgian government and restrict cooperation on defence amid the "unacceptable" reports of police violence against protesters.

Georgian Dream, the ruling party, won almost 54% of the vote in an Oct. 26 parliamentary election, which the opposition says was tainted by fraud.

President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling party who backs the protests, told Reuters last week that protesters were seeking a re-run of the election, not a revolution.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has repeatedly cast the protesters as warmongers who seek to foment a Maidan-style revolution in the country of 3.7 million.

Georgian lawmakers have introduced proposals to ban the import, production and sale of pyrotechnics, which some demonstrators hurled at police during the protests, Interpress reported.