The monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is assessing Georgia's fulfillment of its international obligations amid the political crisis after the parliamentary elections and the suspension of EU accession talks, Novosti-Georgia reports.

A fact-finding mission headed by Georgia's co-rapporteurs Claude Kern and Edith Estrela is visiting Tbilisi from January 14 to 16. PACE emphasized in advance that this is a “routine monitoring visit” and meetings with politicians “should not be seen as political support for legitimacy.”

On Wednesday, members of the mission held talks with Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and several other Georgian Dream leaders. Papuashvili insisted that boycotting parliament is a common “tactic” of the opposition after every election. He also said that the authorities are not giving up on integration with the European Union and are doing “a lot of work” to do so.

Today the co-rapporteurs met with representatives of civil society and opposition leaders, Georgian media wrote.

According to Zurab Japaridze, head of the Girchi party, they spoke about “the brutal tactics of the Georgian Dream against peaceful demonstrators.”

“They were also interested in what could ultimately be a way out of the situation. We clarified that only two points - the release of political prisoners and holding new elections,” Japaridze said.

The committee members also visited the leader of the opposition party “For Georgia” Giorgi Gakharia. He continues home treatment after the representatives of the ruling party beat him up in Batumi.