EC report: Georgia met zero of nine steps, accession "de facto halted"; Tbilisi calls it anti-Georgian

In its annual enlargement report, covering September 2025 to September 2026, the European Commission says Georgia has met none of the nine recommended steps and that its accession is "de facto halted", OC Media and Georgia Today report. Alignment with EU foreign policy fell from 40 to 38 percent.

"The independence, impartiality, and integrity of the judicial system remain seriously undermined," the report says. Georgia has had no anti-corruption strategy since 2020, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau has been abolished.

A bid to ban parties

The ruling Georgian Dream has asked the Constitutional Court to ban five opposition parties; hearings before seven judges opened in Batumi on October 21. Four of those parties won about 38 percent of the vote in the 2024 election.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry said on November 4 that the report contains "factual inaccuracies and biased assessments that reinforce anti-Georgian narratives". EU Ambassador Pawel Herczynski said: "This smear campaign must stop for dialogue to resume."