The Georgian Foreign Ministry criticized Brussels for postponing a dialogue on human rights protection.

Sources attribute the postponement of the meeting to the presence of Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze, who is under sanctions by several European countries, in the delegation.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, on November 4, the European Commission published a report on enlargement for 2025. According to the document, Georgia has made no progress toward joining the European Union and its candidate status remains only nominal.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a statement regarding the postponement of the EU-Georgia dialogue on human rights protection. This meeting was scheduled for November 21. The Georgian Foreign Ministry noted that Tbilisi viewed the upcoming human rights meeting as an opportunity to engage with Brussels and discuss issues that often draw criticism of Georgia.

"Unfortunately, despite the Georgian side's desire to hold a meeting on human rights protection in the Georgia-EU dialogue format, the European side postponed the said meeting under a completely unacceptable and unfounded pretext. Using this topic for further speculation raises legitimate doubts and creates the impression that the European External Action Service was not sincerely interested in holding the meeting and that Brussels is not ready to listen to the reasoned position of the Georgian side," Sova quoted the Foreign Ministry's statement from November 19 as saying.

According to Realpolitik, the reason for the cancellation of the meeting was that one of the members of the Georgian delegation is under sanctions and is banned from entering the European Union. According to Formula TV, this is Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Darakhvelidze. However, Darakhvelidze himself did not directly answer this question, noting that no one officially cited his presence in the delegation as the reason for the meeting's postponement. "No one officially cited such a reason. Regarding the issue of sanctions, the European Union has not imposed sanctions on any Georgian citizen. Therefore, this opinion is not true. The Georgian side is forming the composition of the delegation based on the issues raised by the EU representatives." Accordingly, the Georgian side determines the composition of the delegation and provides answers to questions from EU representatives," Georgia-Online quotes Darakhvelidze as saying.

It should be noted that in December 2024, the UK authorities added to the sanctions lists Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, his deputy Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, head of the Tbilisi Police Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry Sulkhan Tamazashvili, director of the Special Tasks Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry Zviad Kharazishvili, and his deputy Mileri Lagazauri, as reported on the UK government website.