European Union and the Council of Europe officially launched a joint project "Supporting the criminal justice reforms" on 15 April bringing together state authorities, members of the parliament, international donor organisations, members of the High Council of Justice, judges of the Common Courts of Georgia, prosecutors, lawyers, media and civil society representatives. The project aims at assisting the Georgian stakeholders in reforming the criminal procedure mechanisms and strengthening the capacity of national courts.

Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Peter Danis, Programme Manager, EU Delegation to Georgia, Natia Mezvrishvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs; Mikheil Sarjveladze, First Deputy Ministry of Justice, Sophio Kiladze, Chairperson of Human Rights and Civic Integration Committee of the Parliament, Giorgi Shavliashvili, Judge at Supreme Court of Georgia, Davit Asatiani, Chairperson of Georgian Bar Association and Giorgi Burjanadze, Deputy Ombudsperson opened the event.

Representatives of Georgian institutions, European Union Delegation and the Council of Europe agreed to cooperate closely within the new project in order to improve different aspects of criminal justice. For that reason, various European models which could be applied in Georgia have been discussed. The main aim of the project is to improve protection of rights and access of Georgian citizens to an effective, fair and transparent criminal process.

The launch of the event was organised in the framework of EU-CoE joint project “Supporting the criminal justice reforms – tackling criminal aspects of the judicial reform”, within the EU-CoE Partnership for Good Governance phase II. The project is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.