Representatives of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, Transparency International-Georgia, International Society for Fair Elections And Democracy, Economic Policy Research Center, and Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies will hold meetings on July 12-16 in Washington with the US Department of State, Senate, USAID, Atlantic Council, Heritage House, Freedom House, the Helsinki Committee, the Center for European Policy Analysis and other analytical organizations. Meetings with non-governmental organizations will be attended by Nino Zhizhilashvili, Dean of the Media School at Caucasus University and host of the Formula TV Talk Show.

The meetings will commence on July 12 and focus on recent developments in Georgia, the quality of democracy, and democracy development prospects, where the degree of media freedom and the independence of the judiciary play a key role. The content of the meetings will be based on the topics prepared by the organizations a few weeks in advance: corruption-related challenges and anti-corruption policy, reforms in the field of justice, offshore companies registered in Georgia – lack of transparency of their ownership and activities, political and electoral process, media environment and state security.

Representatives of the organizations taking parts in the meetings express hope that the vision of the civil society sector on these issues will be a credible alternative source of information for the United States, which will further assist them in setting the agenda and priority issues for Georgia.