Georgia has no intention of repeating the 70-year experience of membership in an unequal union. If post-Soviet countries that are now EU members allow this change, it will turn out that their problem was not with the Soviet Union, but with who dominates within such a union. Speaker of the Georgian Parliament wrote this on his Facebook page.

“Yesterday, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, noted that the EU is considering a proposal under which future member states would not possess the same voting rights as current ones.

This implies that upon accession, Georgia - along with other new member states - would carry the same obligations as existing EU members while lacking equal rights. In practice, this would allow the EU to make decisions crucial to Georgia's national interests without its involvement.

This development calls to mind Brussels’ frequently cited maxim: “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”. The concept currently under review in the EU effectively dismantles this approach, applying not just to Ukraine but to all candidate nations. Kyiv has already recognized this shift, declaring that it will not accept second-class membership.

These trends demonstrate that the EU’s hallmark motto, “Unity in Diversity”, is increasingly being replaced in practice by the slogan, “Do not deviate from the general line”.

This implies that countries will only be admitted to the club if their voice serves a purely decorative purpose. To be sure, such an approach would simplify decision-making significantly - eliminating the need for difficult debates, opposing viewpoints, and the very element of democracy that embraces dissenting opinions. The European Union has always been a rules-based project, meaning all members are equal before the law. Brussels’ concept of institutionalizing a segregation of rights radically alters this foundational principle, turning a union of equal nations into a hierarchy of “first-class” and “second-class” states.

Consequently, one point must be made explicitly clear: if this idea becomes reality, it will no longer be the same union Georgia applied to join four years ago. Furthermore, pursuing membership in this type of bloc does not align with the mandates of Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution.

Georgia already has a 70-year history of membership in a nominal and unequal union, an experience we have no intention of repeating. If post-Soviet countries that are now EU members tolerate this shift, it will suggest that their historical grievance was not with the Soviet Union itself, but merely with who held the dominant position within it”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.