How we work
The EU has around 140 active projects in Georgia. A wide range of partners including civil society, international organisations, private companies, and EU member states implement these projects. However, due Georgia’s democratic backsliding, financial assistance to the government and authorities is suspended. Meanwhile, the EU continues its support towards the Georgian population by increasing its assistance to civil society and independent media to strengthen Georgia’s democratic resilience and protect fundamental rights.
Generally, EU funding is provided through various modalities. They include grants, service tenders, blending, loans, or sectorial reform support contracts.
EU support is usually provided through grants. These financial donations do not have to be repaid and can be awarded following a call for proposals. Grants are usually aimed for non-profit organisations.
The EU can provide specific technical expertise or equipment by launching a competitive call for tender. These can include:
- Services (technical assistance, studies etc.)
- Supplies (equipment, materials etc.)
- Works (infrastructure, engineering works etc.)
Twinning is an EU instrument for institutional cooperation between Public Administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary countries.
Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer-to-peer activities.
As a result of Georgia’s democratic backsliding, twinning projects with Georgia’s public institutions are being reviewed.
The EU provides loans, guarantees and equity as forms of financial assistance to support its policies and programmes. Where in the past, the EU have mostly used direct grants to promote development in our partner countries, we now aim to bring in other sources of public and private finance to complement our own development funding. For example, the EU provides loans to businesses of all types for investment in research and innovation. It also provides guarantees to help beneficiaries to obtain loans more easily or at better conditions from banks and other lenders. The EU may also financially participate in a project by owning parts of it.
With guarantees, we share the risk associated with investing and lending in developing countries, so that private investors and development banks will finance entrepreneurs or development projects. That means in the unlikely event that a loss occurs, the EU will pay part of it.
Sector Reform Support Contracts, are a form of budget support, central to EU international cooperation. They involve direct financial transfers to the national treasury of partner countries engaging in sustainable development reforms.
These transfers are conditional on achieving agreed policy results monitored through policy dialogue, performance assessment, and are supported by complementary capacity building measures.
As a result of Georgia’s democratic backsliding in 2024, support directly benefiting Georgia’s authorities has been suspended.
The European Union published a detailed evaluation on the effectiveness and impact of the EU’s cooperation with Georgia during the funding period 2014-2020. An independent team of evaluators worked on a comprehensive evaluation of the EU’s development assistance.
Read the detailed findings in this factsheet.