The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Mikheil Sarjveladze has said that the parliament of Georgia will continue the discussion of the draft law on deoligarchization during the ongoing session week.

"In the course of these discussions, I would like to recall several important circumstances surrounding this topic and to draw the public’s attention to them so that the public has the opportunity to see the truth.

We all remember the main problem that the opposition has been discussing with the public and our international partners over the last few years. For years, much of the oppositionwas busy talking about how Ukraine and Moldova had advanced compared to Georgia, suggesting that the reason for this was, among other things, dealing with the oligarchy.

That is, the opposition actively convinced the population of our country and its international partners that Georgia was overtaken by Ukraine and Moldova in the area of deoligarchization, and that oligarchy is supposedly the main problem faced by Georgia.

I will note at this point that in reality, the opposition simply could not think of anything against Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has built up a huge reputation entirely in good faith – including through charitable works on a grand scale – and not through oligarchy.

It was precisely through such “diligence” of the opposition that the clause on deoligarchization was included in the so-called 12 preconditions, and Georgia must now take steps to convince the European Commission of the seriousness of the steps taken in the said direction.

We should pay attention to the aspect that both Ukraine and Moldova have received a recommendation regarding deoligarchization, with one difference: The European Commission advised the state that had adopted the law on so-called deoligarchization to work on the implementation of this law.

I will note at this point that the opposition has no basis to assert that oligarchy means one thing in Ukraine or in Ukrainian and something entirely different in Georgia or in Georgian.

And I will remind those who may not remember, for example, Ms. Ursula von der Leyen’s assessment of the Ukrainian law, which she expressed on 17 June of this year while speaking about the European perspectives of the three states of the Associated Trio. Here is what the President of the European Commission stated: “Ukraine has adopted a bold law to break the oligarchs' grip on Ukraine's economic, political and public life. In fact, it is the only country in the Eastern Partnership that has done so.”

And after this, the Georgian opposition is trying to criticize the authorities because, in order to fulfil the precondition of so-called deoligarchization required to obtain EU membership candidate status, they took the Ukrainian law of deoligarchization and its key principle – which was positively assessed by the President of the European Commission and the European Commission in general – as the working version, tailored it to the Georgian legal system, and proposed it to the Parliament for consideration.

I would like to ask the public to imagine, for a moment, had Georgia not started its work on the basis of the Ukrainian project, how many times would the opposition have said the following: Why is it necessary to reinvent the bicycle? The authorities do not want to take real steps, and so on.

But it is more important to ask the following question: Won’t the European Commission itself be surprised and displeased if, in order to convince the European Commission in the area of deoligarchization, [Georgia] were to take steps other than those that the European Commissionapproves of?!

Let no one think that this is a simple lack of principles demonstrated by the opposition. This is caused solely by the fear that in reality, this law will create discomfort for everyone who has the intention to become an oligarch and the opposition understands, clearly and very well, that the line of those who want to become oligarchs – the silhouettes of the real oligarchs – can only be seen on their side, behind their backs and not the government’s," Mikheil Sarjveladze said.