EU says Georgia may risk sanctions if it abandons democracy

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's ties with the European Union will suffer and it may even face sanctions if it veers away from democracy, the EU ambassador to Tbilisi said on Friday.

Pawel Herczynski said the EU was prepared to work with any democratically elected government in Georgia, which holds a parliamentary election on Oct. 26. But he said it would not accept the South Caucasus country as a member if it became a "one-party state" with no political opposition.

"For the moment, there is a possibility of the introduction of sanctions in the future in case things would really go wrong with the elections," Herczynski told reporters in Tbilisi.

The EU last year granted candidate status to Georgia, a first stage towards eventual membership. But relations have worsened sharply since the ruling Georgian Dream party passed a "foreign agent" law in May that critics say is evidence it is turning its back on the West and leaning towards Russia.

Herczynski said EU representatives have not held meetings with the Georgian government since June, citing what he called its "unfriendly" attitude towards the bloc.

He said the suspension of dialogue followed an internal discussion with EU member states on how to approach the "anti-Western and anti-European narratives" espoused by Georgia's government.

The envoy said last month that the EU may consider temporarily suspending its visa-free regime with Georgia if the elections are not deemed free, fair and peaceful.

The country of roughly 3 million people has been roiled by political crisis this year over the passage of the foreign agent law, which requires organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as "agents of foreign influence".

Georgian Dream has defended the law as necessary to protect the country's sovereignty, but it has been slammed by opponents as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

For two months, opponents to the law mounted some of the largest protests in Georgia since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 in an unsuccessful bid to get the legislation thrown out. Its passage has soured relations with Brussels and Washington.

Georgia's EU accession process was effectively halted this summer, while the United States withdrew an invitation last month to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to attend a reception hosted by President Joe Biden during the U.N. General Assembly.

(Reporting by Felix Light; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)