On May 21, 2025, Georgian Dream registered another set of amendments to the Law of Georgia on Grants. According to the explanatory note, the initially declared goal of the registered amendments was to exempt grants issued under the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programs from the requirement to obtain government (or government-designated person/body) consent for grant agreements. The initial version aimed to change only one provision; however, after the committee hearing on June 9, it was radically changed and was adopted in the third reading on June 12.
The grant regulatory requirements (need to obtain consent, activity control, and fining of grant recipients), which were adopted in April 2025, were extended to non-grant activities carried out by international organizations. Specifically, support provided by international organizations to Georgia "in the form of sharing technologies, specialized knowledge, skills, expertise and/or other types of assistance" was deemed to be grants and became fully subject to the requirements established for grants.
For instance, based on the amendments, an international organization needs governmental consent to support qualification enhancement courses/training for Georgian beneficiaries; this course/training is considered a grant, its participants as grant recipients, and grant agreements need to be concluded with them. Quasi-investigative powers granted to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, including the imposition of fines, may be activated against persons participating in training.
IDFI considers that the primary purpose of the recent amendments to the legislation of Georgia on Grants is to establish political control over international support. This purpose is served both by the requirement for government consent for grant issuance and by granting quasi-investigative powers to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. According to IDFI's assessment, the following amendments are a continuation of the mentioned anti-democratic purpose. These amendments expand the scope of political control/filtering and place virtually all types of activities carried out by international organizations in Georgia under it, regardless of the category of activity.
According to IDFI's assessment, by extending the anti-democratic amendments introduced for grant activities to non-grant activities of international organizations, an indirect prohibition of international support is established. Specifically, this model of regulation creates almost impossible-to-fulfill regulations for both the initiator of support and its beneficiary.
On May 21, 2025, Georgian Dream registered another set of amendments to the Law of Georgia on Grants. The initiated version exempted two international programs (later two more programs were added to this list) from obligations arising from the law; however, it was radically changed before the plenary hearing. The one-paragraph amendment became a two-page normative text and significantly exceeded the original purpose of the bill, to exempt grants issued under specific international programs from the obligation to receive governmental consent. Specifically, the adopted amendments substantially expanded the list of supportive activities that would be considered grants and whose implementation would require obtaining political consent. On June 12, the bill was adopted in the third reading.
Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law of Georgia on Grants establishes the concept of a grant. According to this provision, "a grant is targeted funds transferred free of charge by a grant issuer (donor) to a grant recipient in monetary or natural form," which is used to achieve specific non-commercial purposes listed in the same norm.
No substantial change was made to the mentioned provision of the Law of Georgia on Grants; however, a legal fiction of considering certain activities as grants was added to the law. Specifically, paragraph 1³ was added to Article 2 of the mentioned law, according to which "assistance in the form of sharing technologies, specialized knowledge, skills, expertise and/or other types of assistance" is also considered a grant, provided that the source of such assistance is an international donor (international organization, state, embassy, etc.).
Based on the Georgian Dream's initiative, virtually any international assistance/support is called a grant, for almost all physical or legal persons, regardless of the form of assistance/support, and the regulations provided for grants are extended to it. For instance, professional skills development programs, qualification enhancement courses, expert assistance, and others.
The terminology used can cover virtually all types of intellectual or technical activities in Georgia, not only at the project level but also at the level of specific project activities. For example, if any international organization implements activities supporting local entrepreneurs in Georgia and brings an expert to meet with local entrepreneurs to share qualifications or technological knowledge, this meeting will be considered "grant issuance," and the international organization will need to obtain consent from the government to conduct the respective meeting. The participants of this meeting will be considered grant recipients and will be subject to Anti-Corruption Bureau inspection/control/fining mechanisms.
Such activity, by its nature, does not constitute a grant; therefore, with the amendments, the concept of a kind of "fictitious grant" is being established in the legislation of Georgia for the first time.
According to the proposed wording, the issuer of a fictitious grant can be a donor provided for in Article 3, paragraph 1 of the law of Georgia on Grants. According to the mentioned article, this donor is "an international charitable, humanitarian and other public organization (including international sports association, federation and committee), as well as other international organization, financial-credit institution, foreign country's government or its representation, as well as foreign commercial (if the grant recipient is the state or government of Georgia) or non-commercial (non-profit) legal entity." This definition includes all types of international organizations that might issue grants in Georgia or directly carry out non-commercial activities.
The recipient of a fictitious grant can be any person who can generally receive grants. Specifically, persons listed in Article 4 of the Law of Georgia on Grants. Among them, the State of Georgia, the government of Georgia, the local government, Georgian citizen, non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entity, branch, representation, public legal entity, higher educational institution, etc. In other words, the recipient of a fictitious grant can be any person, regardless of their status or activity. For example, a person who attends training conducted by an international organization, participates in a professional exchange program announced by it, etc.
Supporting activities carried out by international organizations have corresponding direct beneficiaries. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is granted the authority to use "quasi-investigative" mechanisms at its disposal (requesting information, questioning, interrogation) against these persons. Moreover, to fine them "double the amount" of the received "fictitious grant." What the "double amount" might be when it comes to sharing expert knowledge and intellectual experience is unclear, however, according to Article 6⁴, paragraph 1 of the Law of Georgia on Grants a person will be fined exactly this amount if they participate, for example, in qualification enhancement training/study visits conducted with the support of an international organization, without government consent.
In addition, beneficiaries of respective activities face the threat of additional repression stemming from the "Foreign Agents Registration Act."
The regulations established by the Georgian Dream members' initiative will apply to such social/legal relationships that qualitatively do not constitute grants; accordingly, regulating such relationships with rules established or to be established for grants will be associated with substantial difficulties. For example, requiring a grant agreement with participants of qualification enhancement training conducted by an international organization, in our assessment, does not even meet the criterion of legal seriousness, let alone fundamental rights.
Considering the diversity of activities/support subject to grant regulation, implementing some types of support while observing grant regulations may prove to be operationally impossible.
IDFI considers that the failure to account for the mentioned operational difficulties is not an accidental/unforeseen flaw. On the contrary, against the background of recent changes implemented in the Law of Georgia on Grants, creating such a flaw should be seen as a direct purpose of the introduced amendments. Specifically, according to IDFI's assessment, the purpose of the amendments introduced in the Law of Georgia on Grants is not only to establish a political filter on democratic international support/assistance, but also indirectly prohibit such support and, for this purpose, create substantial operational or other difficulties.
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