Page 12 - Position Paper

The main legal base for the MFA is Article 212 and Article 213
of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – TFEU. Based
on these provisions, the European Parliament and the EU Council

jointly adopted a regulation for Macro-Financial Assistance to third
countries in 2011 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/
?uri=celex:52011PC0396). The document highlights political pre-

conditions for the disbursement of such assistance, including protection
of the Rule of Law.
The EU decision N 778 of August 13, 2013 (https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013D0778&from=EN) on
providing further macro-financial assistance to Georgia was based
exactly on the above-mentioned EU legal acts. The decision clarifies

that a pre-condition for granting macro-financial assistance should be
the respect for effective democratic mechanisms, including a multi-
party parliamentary system and the Rule of Law. In the document, the
European Parliament and the Council task the European Commission to

“provide a publicly available assessment on the fulfilment of this pre-
condition and should monitor it throughout the life-cycle of the macro-
financial assistance.”

Final Remarks

The European Court of Justice by its decision of February 16,
2022 supported the suspension of financial assistance to EU member

states on Rule-of-Law grounds and gave a green light to the
Commission to apply the financial sanctions. Thus, the decision

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