On 20 September, Pawel Herczynski, the EU ambassador to Georgia, told reporters: "I sincerely hope that it will not come to that, but if the elections are not considered fair and free, unfortunately we will be forced to reinstate the measures we have, and this is what we have done in the past with other countries, including in relation to Belarus".

"We are in contact with the OSCE/ODIR Core Group. I know they have big plans to have a significant number of international observers before, during and after the elections. We are supporting local civil society organisations like ISFED, which will also be observing the elections, and we are waiting for their assessments, and on the basis of those assessments we will decide whether we consider these elections to be fair and free. If, and I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that, but if the elections are not considered fair and free, then unfortunately we will be forced to reinstate the measures we have and we have done that in the past with other countries, including Belarus," - said the ambassador.

According to him, the European Union did not recognise the results of the elections in Belarus and applied various measures against the country, including sanctions.

"We did not recognise the elections in Belarus, the elections there were stolen, and therefore we presented a wide range of different measures, including sanctions. This is the worst case scenario, I hope we won't come to this and I sincerely hope that the elections in Georgia on 26 October will be free, fair and peaceful and we are ready to work with any government that the Georgian people elect and we will respect any results of free and fair elections" - said the European Union ambassador.

He also said that it is only up to Georgians to decide how they want to live in the country, on 26 October they will have the opportunity to go, vote and choose their future leaders, EU Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski told journalists who visited the office of "Fair Elections" and the Executive Director of ISFED. He met with Nino Dolidze and the organisation's staff.
"If the elections are free and fair, they will be competitive, transparent, inclusive and, above all, peaceful. We, the European Union, recognise their results and will work with all the governments that will be formed after the elections" - said the ambassador.

According to him, if Georgia wants to become part of the EU family, it should fully respect the main principles of the EU. "The main issue is that if Georgia wants to join the European Union, if it wants to become part of the European Union family, we have the conditions for it. We have not created these conditions specifically for Georgia, they are conditions that apply to all countries that want to join the European Union. That is why we need very serious reforms, and it is also necessary that the fundamental principles on which the European Union is based are fully respected. These principles are well known: democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, including the rights of minorities. These are fundamental principles that are not subject to negotiation. So if Georgia wants to become a part of the EU family, these principles must be fully respected," the ambassador noted.