Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697740977636.pdf (Georgia)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022 The Messenger P3 The Messenger Georgia to Submit Second Part of EU Accession Questionnaire Ahead of Schedule “ I m p a r t i a l , I n f o r m a t i v e , I n s i g h t f u l ” WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022 #083 (5143) GEL 3.00 WWW.MESSENGER.COM.GE The second part of Georgia’s EU membership questionnaire is a 239-page-long document, divided into 33 chapters with about 2,300 questions.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell expects European Commission’s opinion on Georgia’s candidate status by next month.

BY KHATIA BZHALAVA The EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell announced yesterday that it is expected the European Commission to prepare its opinion for the EU candidate status of Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova sometime next month.
He also stressed that the assessment on the candidate sta- tus would be made based on the situation on the ground, including Georgia’s adher- ence to fundamental EU values, and key economic and other criteria.

On Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili handed over the first com- pleted part of the EU membership ques- tionnaire to Hartzell, calling the devel- opment a ‘paramount stage’ in the EU integration process.
Hartzell told Geor- gian media yesterday that he was hon- ored to receive the first answers to the first questionnaire and was confident the Georgian Government would deliver the second completed part of the country’s membership questionnaire soon.

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili announced yesterday that Georgia would submit the second part of the questionnaire before the deadline, hoping the process to be successful.
Ac- cording to him, filling out the question- naire was a responsible and time-consum- ing process, involving all government agencies on the instructions of the Prime Minister.

“We continue to work on the second part of the questionnaire, which is quite voluminous and sectoral in content.

We plan to submit it to the EU promptly and early,” Darchiashvili said.
The second part of Georgia’s EU mem- bership questionnaire, which is a 239- page-long document, divided into 33 chap- ters with about 2,300 questions, focuses on the compatibility of Georgia’s specific legislative frameworks for each sector of the national economy with that of the EU.

The topics covered by the questionnaire range from existing legislation on work permits and the freedom of movement of workers to anti-discriminatory laws.
The document touches upon the exist- ing banking and non-cash payment sys- tems in the country, and whether there are effective laws in force to prevent money laundering and the funding of illegal ac- tivities.

The questions also focus on Georgia’s intellectual property laws and the extent of copyright laws regarding com- puter applications and technology as well.
The News in Brief PREPARED BY THE MESSENGER STAFF The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson addressed the Verkhovna Johnson: The West Made the Mistake of Not Helping Ukraine in 2014 Volodymyr Zelenskiy and members of the Verkhovna Rada stand for Ukraine’s national anthem before the address by Boris Johnson.

Photograph: Verkhovna Rada/PA Rada of Ukraine.

Johnson said the West made the mistake of not helping Ukraine in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.
“We, your friends, should be upset about what happened in 2014, because Ukraine was invaded before, then Crimea was taken from Ukraine, and now the war has started in Donbas.

“We can not repeat the same mistake for Vladimir Putin,” Johnson said.

Today, the British Prime Minister presented a new military aid to Ukraine worth 300 million euros.

Johnson said military assistance includes radars, heavy crane drones, and thou- sands of night-vision devices.
Medical Masks to Be Mandatory Only in Transport and Clinics The use of veils will be mandatory only in transport and in clinics, in all other enclosed spaces, including schools, the obligation to wear a veil is removed.

Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said about it at the government session.

According to him, before making a decision Minister of Health Zurab Azarashvili met with specialists in the field.

“We have a very stable picture.

The situation with Covid has stabilized.


The situation is very calm in this direction.

This allows us to ease the regulations even more,” Gharibashvili said.

In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, wearing a veil was mandatory in all enclosed spaces.
P2 Politics / Economics The Messenger WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022 Euro - 3.1869; Exchange Rates: US Dollar - 3.0331; Maritime Transport Agency and Georgian Railway Deny Accusations on Assisting Russian Companies to Circumvent Sanctions GBP - 3.7950; 100 Russian Ruble - 4.3595; Swiss Franc - 3.1042 BY NATALIA KOCHIASHVILI T he Maritime Transport Agency of the Ministry of Economy has issued a statement on the service of ‘Russian sanc- tioned ships’ in the port of Batumi, rejecting a TV Pirveli channel report that alleged a Russian tanker had been pro- vided with services in Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi in cir- cumvention of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The agency explained that the 5th package of EU sanctions, which includes a ban on Russian- flagged vessels entering EU ports, does not apply to energy (oil, petroleum products), agri- culture, food, and humanitarian aid.

“Therefore, the services ren- dered to the tanker do not con- stitute a breach of sanctions or Annual Inflation Reached 12.8% in April BY NATALIA KOCHIASHVILI The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) has re- leased data, according to which annual inflation in April was 12.8%.
For the most part, 29.1%, prices are higher for the opera- tion of personal vehicles.

Accord- ing to statistics, the upward trend in prices in April is main- Weather Wednesday, May 4 Day Rain Night High: 21°C Rain Low: 14°C Thursday, May 5 Day Rain Night High: 15°C Rain Low: 10°C lar statement was issued on April 16.
Meanwhile, the Georgian Rail- way has also denied reports of the Mtavari Arkhi channel about Russian energy giant Gazprom attempting to use the Georgian territory to transport products sanctioned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

TV channel reported earlier on Tuesday that a convoy of oil tanks bearing the Gazprom title was transporting ‘sanctioned oil’ to Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi.
Georgian Railway said the fuel in the tanks was a prop- erty of a Kazakh company and was loaded on train cars of the company itself.

The railway op- erator also said such carriages were used often by Kazakhstan, which usually sends cargo to Europe through the Batumi Port.

aiding a circumvention of sanc- tions,” the statement said.
The Maritime agency further noted that on May 2, a Russian- flagged tanker called SVL Pride entered the port of Batumi, with a transit cargo of 5,000 tons of diesel destined for a third coun- try, Armenia.

“At the moment, the unload- ing operation is being carried out in compliance with both domes- tic and international norms,” the statement said.

This is not the first time that the agency has released an ex- planation regarding the informa- tion spread in the media.
A simi- tained in food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Prices for vegetables and horticulture rose by 46.2%, bread, and bakery products by 28.8%, mineral and spring wa- ter, non-alcoholic beverages, and natural juices by 24.1%.

According to Geostat, prices for oil and fat increased by 20.8%, sugar, jam, and other sweets - by 19.3%, fish - by 18.9%; Milk, cheese, and eggs by 18.0%; Coffee, tea, and cocoa are 17.6%.
Prices for fruits and grapes increased by 14.4%, while prices for meat and meat products in- creased by 10.9%.

Back in early February, the Ministry of Economy predicted that inflation in Georgia would begin to decline in the spring.

This expectation was not met, the war between Georgia’s larg- est economic partners has been going on since February 24 as Russia is conducting large-scale military operations on the terri- tory of Ukraine.
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