30.12.2025, Tbilisi.
For a long time, the European Union intimidated Georgia with the threat of revoking the visa-free access, but now it appears to be seriously preparing to use this “means of blackmail,” having exhausted other means of pressure, Rossa Primavera News Agency Caucasus desk wrote.
The European Union began threatening the country with the cancellation of the visa-free access back in 2017. That is, the very year the current political forces came to power in Georgia. Now the situation looks as though Brussels has seriously decided to revoke visa-free travel, having lost other instruments of influence over Georgia.
On December 19, the European Commission recommended launching a procedure to suspend Georgia’s visa-free regime. The reaction in Georgia was quite sharp. On December 28, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the EU is using this “instrument of blackmail” in an attempt to stage a “color revolution,” but that this scenario will not succeed.
“This is an absolutely artificial process; however, given that this instrument of blackmail has lost its force, I believe that the European bureaucracy will remain in a pragmatic position and will not make a decision that would ultimately anger the Georgian people,” the head of government said.
The next day, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili also accused the EU of blackmail, but went further by naming its goal – forcing the republic into escalation with Russia, up to and including war.
“If we had gone for escalation, if we had imposed sanctions against Russia, as the European Commission demanded from Georgia, closed the airspace, and entered into a spiral of confrontation with Russia, we would not have avoided a military conflict and the destruction of our country,” he stated.
At the same time, it should be noted that the visa-free travel remains the European Union’s last means of pressure on Georgia. Previously, the EU suspended financial assistance to Georgia and refused official meetings with representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Pressure through international NGOs has not worked either. Georgian security services are stopping such attempts, including discovering weapons caches. Targeted sanctions against officials and their families have also failed.
The cancellation of the visa-free travel will, of course, affect broad segments of the population, as many people travel to EU countries for work, but it will not become a catastrophe: people will simply get visas. Therefore, there is no guarantee that this would provoke protests on such a scale as to overthrow the authorities. This is why Kobakhidze concludes that, out of pragmatic considerations, the EU will not carry out its threat.
The paradox is that the value of this “means of blackmail” has increased greatly precisely because it is the last one. But for the same reason, it is also rapidly declining. It is a one-time instrument: once it is used, no levers of pressure will remain.
At the same time, prolonged use of this measure also devalues it. The longer Georgian citizens are frightened with the cancellation of the visa-free regime, the fewer people there will be who are afraid of it. The blackmail will fail. It may even produce the opposite effect: consolidation of society.
This means that the European Union will have to look for new methods of pressure, and it will most likely begin to act. Of course, economic sanctions remain as a harsh measure of pressure, but in that case the EU would push Georgia into Russia’s sphere of influence, something it cannot allow.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
