A session of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg, attended by Otar Grigolia, Chairman of Tbilisi City Municipal Assembly faction “Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia”, representing Georgia.

The session took place on July 3, 2025, at the Palace of Europe, with the primary goal of monitoring the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government at local and regional levels, assessing the protection of human rights, and evaluating the quality of democratic governance.

Among other topics, the session included debates on recent developments in Georgia, in which the Georgian delegate actively participated.

As the majority leader of Tbilisi City Assembly stated, the debates were biased and one-sided. During the debates, the issue was raised on inviting by the Georgian government an observation mission of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of the Council of Europe to the local self-government elections. Otar Grigolia stated that certain political actors are also trying to distort the current situation in Georgia, and he provided the committee members with information about the current situation.

Otar Grigolia emphasized the importance of greater accuracy and reliance on factual information when discussing Georgia on an international level, presenting specific facts to the audience.

“It is very important to be more precise when talking about Georgia. Here are some important factors: activists were arrested for violently storming the parliament building and using pyrotechnics. More than 150 police officers were seriously injured during the so-called “peaceful demonstration.

Politicians were arrested for refusing to appear before a parliamentary investigative commission. This was a kind of political act, a radical step aimed at showing other international institutions the image that “everyone in Georgia is imprisoned”. In fact, everything is simple here. They deliberately broke the law in order to go to prison. It is very easy to verify this.

Also, considering the current situation in the region, it is regrettable that the Monitoring Committee is limited to only superficial assessments on Georgia. Recently, the political activism of some members of the Monitoring Committee regarding the issue of Georgia and the one-sided presentation of positions has raised questions about their objectivity and impartiality in the election observation process. We recall the resolution of the Congress of the Council of Europe, which called for the postponement of elections in Georgia and negatively assessed the 2024 parliamentary elections, which in turn were assessed by the OSCE-ODIHR as competitive. All of these raise doubts that the Monitoring Committee’s assessments will be biased and will further deepen radicalism. Therefore, we do not consider it appropriate to invite the Congressional Monitoring Committee to observe the local self-government elections,” – said Otar Grigolia.

The session also featured several monitoring reports from various European countries, discussions on human rights protection mechanisms, and the implementation of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights at the local level. At the conclusion of the meeting, the committee’s work plan for 2025–2026 was outlined.