Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The events in Georgia could become a serious obstacle to the signing of the association agreement, head of the European People's Party Wilfried Martens has said.

The arrest of former senior Georgian officials' is a serious step backwards for Georgian democracy; this is because the former Prime Minister is the General Secretary of the main opposition party and a potential candidate for presidency, Martens said.

Former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili and former Health Minister Zurab Chiaberashvili have been charged with embezzling public funds. They were summoned to the regional prosecutor's office in Kutaisi on May 21 where investigators questioned them regarding the alleged misuse of money meant for a program to fight unemployment.

Both Merabishvili and Chiaberashvili are close associates of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Saakashvili compared the two arrests to the jailing in Ukraine of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Some Georgian politicians also share their opinions on the issue. The United National Movement (UNM) lawmaker, Giorgi Gabashvili, told journalists in Kutaisi that the arrests are politically motivated.

Georgia expects initialing of the association agreement with the EU at the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Vilnius on November 28-29. The Georgian government announced that it will use the best efforts to achieve certain results.

Georgia started negotiations about an Association Agreement in July, 2010. It will replace an agreement with the EU from 1996 about partnership and cooperation.

The European People's Party is the largest European political party, founded in 1976 and includes the members of the collective national Christian-democratic parties and other national party with an ideology close to the entire European Union.