Member Info for CODEFRED

Thank you for your incredible efforts over the previous months, greatly appreciated :-)

ODR, whats a caps lock :-)

Nearly time to dig out the old rose tinteds :-)

Massive resources, massive cogs aligned, massive amount of time waiting though :-)

Absolutely massive, in fact so massive 1% is absolutely massive. Just with massive reserves comes massive corruption, but the corruption will / is getting hit with a hammer. Billionaires push further than most, but fail when up against the most powerful nation. Hope everyone is well.

All these amendments to the text were supported not only by MPs representing the Georgian opposition, but also by all members of the European Parliament.

Authorities: “This is a failure – but the opposition, which works negatively, is to blame”
The ruling party of Georgia sent Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze to the meeting and former parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze. They held several meetings in Strasbourg, presenting to the members of the European Parliament their version of the situation in Georgia.

“It is a sad reality that the opposition is working very negatively. They are glad for this failure – but this is not the failure of the ruling party, it is the failure of the state. Therefore, such an attitude on their part causes damage primarily to the country. The actions they are taking are anti-state,” said David Songulashvili, co-chair of the Parliamentary Committee for the Association of the Georgian Parliament.

Opposition: “This is a warning to Ivanishvili about international isolation”
“This is an unprecedented story, our victory and the complete collapse of the Georgian Dream. … This is another warning for Ivanishvili that he is moving towards international isolation. Friends and partners of Georgia are friends and partners of our country, and not of any political party, and especially the oligarch who seized the state,” said Otar Kakhidze, a deputy from the opposition party European Georgia

logo
Georgian ruling party, opposition go head to head over association agreement statement – why?

Representatives of the Georgian authorities and the opposition blame one another for the inability of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee to adopt an annual declaration on the country’s progress towards integration into Western structures.

Held between February 12-13 in Strasbourg, this is the first time the committee has been unable to do approve a statement since Georgia signed the Association Agreement with the EU in 2014.

The Parliamentary Committee of the Association of the European Union-Georgia includes Georgian MPs and members of the European Parliament. Its main function is to monitor how Georgia fulfills its obligations under the Association Agreement.

In the annual declaration, the Committee also assesses the overall situation in the country.

According to the rules, the adoption of the declaration requires the support of the majority of both delegations: both members of the European Parliament and Georgian MPs. The majority in the Georgian delegation was represented by MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream party – and they refused to support the text of the declaration, considering it biased.

Dozens of amendments made by MPs of the European Parliament and the Georgian opposition, in particular, a critical assessment of the arrest of the opposition leader Gigi Ugulava and the failure of electoral reform in the Georgian parliament in November 2019, were unacceptable to representatives of the ruling party.

•EU concerned by arrest of ex-mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava

•Georgian president’s CoE speech gives rise to controversy back home

•American congressman write letter to Georgian PM detailing eight main problems in Georgia

Other issues in Georgia noted by amendments to the declaration
About forty changes were made to the original text.

The main ones concerned the detention of Gigi Ugulava and trials and the frequent cases of political persecution.

Other issues named were:

•The government’s decision to suspend the construction of the deepwater port in Anaklia;

•The failure to fulfill the promise made to society regarding the transition to a proportional election system;

•Violations and pressure on voters during the presidential election in 2018;

•Lifetime appointment of 14 judges to the Supreme Court without a full assessment of their qualifications;

•Excessive use of force during the dispersal of shares on June 20 and November 14, 2019 Gold, resulting in the wounding of about 240 peaceful demonstrators, journalists and law enforcement officials.

•The arrest of more than 300 protesters;

•Government pressure on and the independent prosecution of independent media.

All these amendments to the text were supported not only by MPs representing the Georgian opposition, but also by all members of the European Parliament.

Authorities: “This is a failure – but the oppositi

ODR, Zaza has stayed silent for a long time, if not confident he would have stayed silent IMO. Georgian Dream are at a Cross Roads and seriously on back foot IMO...

If a short is paid out there is an audit trail to the account...

Prodigy this is a very big step forwards, hope all well with you, looking forward to the phoenix rising...

Another MASSIVE cog aligning to ensure Georgia is secure as a new Energy province and alternative Energy supply for Europe..
https://112.international/ukraine-top-news/ukraine-georgia-to-become-nato-members-stoltenberg-46167.html

Great idea mate I'm in

This is MASSIVE, always has been, just need the MASSIVE cogs aligned, cheers for sharing info Prodigy.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is ready to take part in a four-way summit in Paris to try to breathe life into the stalled Ukrainian peace process but has strict preconditions for such a meeting, a senior Kremlin aide said on Friday.

Kiev's forces have been battling pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Sporadic fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement.

Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France last met in October 2016 for talks to implement a peace deal agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk the year before but which failed to achieve a lasting ceasefire.

ADVERTISEMENT

"We believe that such a meeting should take place and we agree that it can be held in Paris, as proposed by French President (Emmanuel) Macron," said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

He said no date had yet been fixed but added that Moscow had three preconditions before it would agree to attend.

The rival armed forces in eastern Ukraine should be separated on either side of the line of contact, he said. Also, the wording on a special status for the Donbass region should be agreed and there must also be a preliminary agreement on what the summit's conclusions should be.

Hopes for an improvement in relations between Russia and Ukraine have revived following a prisoner swap last week

Ushakov called the exchange "a very important action", which he said could facilitate better ties between the two countries.

He said he did not rule out the Paris summit taking place in October.

Mr Coggy, good to hear from you Sir, this will come good, it's just about timing of BIG Cogs, Coggy....

At the time of the Energy Summit, a meeting was held with high-ranking US and Georgian officials from the economic sector that included the American Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Kumsishvili, who was still serving as Georgia’s Sustainable Development Minister. The officials discussed the development of the transit corridor that passes through Georgia and the involvement of both the US government and private American firms in the continued development of the transit process.

Chief among the topics covered, all of which are considered fundamental to enhancing Georgia’s transit capability, were the transit corridors (TRACECA, Trans Caucasia International Transport Corridor or so-called middle corridor; Lapis Lazuli; Persian Gulf – Black Sea corridor, etc.) that pass through Georgia and to the efforts of the Georgian Government which aim to develop the transit corridors.

The meeting also focused on the development status of significant projects such as the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, the East-West Highway, the Railway Modernization Project that will allow for the total amount of cargo turnover on the the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line to triple in the coming years and the need for US’ Conti Group to continue participating in the project. The attendees also discussed the development of transit lines of petrol and gas from Asia to EU via Georgia and reiterated that the success of the Anaklia Port hinges on having the world’s largest operator of container terminals – SSA Marine from the United States.

Following up on last year’s discussions with US officials about the development of sea and port links, the first High Level Transport Dialogue with the EU was held in January in the hope that it would help facilitate expanded cooperation between the European Union and Georgia.

The two sides discussed strategic issues such as the development of the trans-European transport network in the Eastern Partnership countries – of which Georgia is a member – and the EU’s strategy towards linking Europe, the Near East, and Asia through the continued construction of roads, railways, and seaports that are capable of delivering both energy resources and consumer goods, This bilateral strategy, according to the European delegation, remains key due to the fact that Georgia’s position as a regional player, in terms of road network logistics, grows every year.

“We have a very clear vision and a very effective, active, and aggressive plan to support local energy development on the one hand and on the other hand, to promote more active trade between the countries of our region and to offer our customers a choice between our own electricity and the possibly cheaper foreign energy. We also have a plan to make our consumption more energy efficient,” said Tarnava.

Georgia is considered one of the main transit countries of hydrocarbons from the Caspian region to Europe. Over the past decade pipelines such as the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (SCP), Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa pipelines have been successfully delivering Caspian hydrocarbon resources to Europe.

During the last Ministerial Meeting of South Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku, which was held in February 2018, the Georgian delegation paid special attention to the issue of transporting Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbons to the European market via Georgia and Turkey. The importance of the Southern Gas Corridor is for the diversification of gas supply, as well as the further enhancement of the energy security of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and the EU countries.

The crux of the meeting in Baku was a conversation that also covered the trans-Caspian pipeline project, which aims to deliver Turkmen gas to the EU using the transit capacities of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. “The development of the South Gas Corridor, as well as the expansion of the South Caucasia Pipeline and the completion of the Shah-Deniz 2 (in Azerbaijan), is of the utmost importance for our country,” ex-Development and Economy Minister Kumsishvili said during his visit to the Azeri capital last year.

Georgia is remarkably rich in hydropower resources, and also has potential when it comes to wind, solar, biomass and geothermal resources. This would allow for the creation of additional capacity by means of domestic and foreign investment. Georgia cooperates with one of the leading energy Companies in Turkey, Çalik Enerji, with the two having completed negotiations on the construction of a wind power plant with a capacity of 50 MW and an investment of $75 million that will be built in Georgia’s Shida Kartli region.

“This is, of course, a very important investment that will result in another new source of renewable energy in the electric power system of our country,” said Kumsishvili on February 20, 2018.

The most recent South Caucasus Energy Summit was held in Tbilisi in May 2018. The forum focused on the development of energy infrastructure and connectivity within the South Caucasus region as well as ways of improving the regional energy ties, strengthen energy security and the sustainability of the natural gas and electricity supply.

In 2014, Georgia signed an Association Agreement with the EU to implement the bloc’s policies for sustainable energy development. By signing the Agreement and joining the Energy Community, Georgia took on the obligation to implement a reform package in the energy sector and lay the foundation for its approximation to the European energy market.

During the many High-level Energy Cooperation Meetings – Georgia introduced, in detail, the ongoing and scheduled reforms in Georgia’s energy sector, discussed international cooperation, and highlighted Georgia’s interest to become an energy hub in the Caucasus/Black Sea region.

While serving as Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Dimitri Kumsishvili, promoted the fact that the European Energy Community had provided Georgia with a particular framework to implement key energy sector reforms that include significant initiatives such as the establishment of a free energy market, energy efficiency in the construction and other sectors.

Within that framework of ongoing reforms in Georgia’s energy sector, and under the commitments of the Energy Community Agreement, Georgian officials held a meeting with Energy Community Secretariat, Janez Kopac at the end of 2018, which resulted in the government of Georgia submitting to the European Parliament a draft law on reforms in the Georgian energy market as well as the development and implementation of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and the energy performance of buildings.

This new regulation will significantly contribute to the establishment of international business rules on the local energy market as well as the inflow of new investments. The final target is the harmonisation of the Georgian energy system with European norms and requirements.” as noted by Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava shortly after her December 2018 meeting with Kopac.

While introducing the current Georgian government’s energy sector development strategy under the Economic and Development Ministry’s new head, George Kobulia, Tarnava emphasised in late January that, “According to IMF, Georgia will have one of the most dynamic and fastest growing economies during the next 10-15 years. Of course, this is an excellent result, but at the same time it is a huge challenge for our energy sector – the growth of the economy will further increase the demand on the already high demand on the electricity”.

The assistance offered in this regard by the EU and the Energy Community under the EU4Energy Government Project will help Georgia to establish a well-functioning gas market with clear rules and regulations that ensure both competition and legal certainty. With such rules and regulations in place, consumers, businesses and industry can expect not only lower energy bills, but also improved reliability and safety of energy supply and improved quality of service.

How will Georgia address its challenges?

To address the issues, Georgia plans to adopt a new Natural Gas Market Concept Design. It aims to bring competition into the Georgian gas market and ensure gas supply security in compliance with EU standards. The Georgian government plans to implement the basic rules of domestic gas market management under the requirements of its Association Agreement with the EU and Energy Community law, according to the 2017-2026 Energy Sector Development Strategy of Georgia.

On 4 to 5 October, the Energy Community Secretariat, an international organisation located in Vienna and a leader of the EU4Energy Governance Programme supported by the EU, hosted high-level policy talks on the natural gas market design in Georgia, bringing together field experts and authorities to discuss upcoming market changes.

‘We want to implement state-of-the-art, tailor-made natural gas market rules in Georgia, which will provide an open market for competition and deliver both lower concentration and security of supply,’ says Predrag Grujicic, the head of the Gas Unit at the Energy Community Secretariat.

Irakli Galdava, the head of the Natural Gas Sector Department at the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission also thinks it is necessary to bring competition to the Georgian natural gas market. ‘We need competition. Opening the market, non-discriminatory third party access and transparency is needed to invite suppliers on and create competition. They will purchase gas from different sources and we will no longer depend on single long-term contracts,’ says Galdava.

How does Georgia diversify its gas market?

When asked about how the new legislation will make the Georgian market more attractive, Andrius Šimkus, an Energy Community gas expert and author of Georgia’s new Draft Energy Law, says that a possible tool might be a ‘gas release programme’. This would mean that some, or – if the Georgian authorities decide so – all gas imported to the country may have to be sold on the gas exchange. ‘This means importers will not be allowed to serve final customers but will be required to offer the gas for sale on the gas exchange,’ explains Šimkus.

Yet another element to it, Šimkus says, is the so-called unbundling, or separation, of market players. ‘It means that Socar will not be able to have the same company for distribution and for supply. It will have to split, to ensure independence of the distributor from any commercial interests of supply, and to guarantee that each potential supplier can access the distribution system,’ says Šimkus.