Draft

Law of Georgia „On Transparency of Foreign Influence“

Article 1. Goal and scope of the law

1. The present law governs registration of an entity as an agent of foreign influence and other issues related to transparency of an agent of foreign influence, with the aim of ensuring transparency of foreign influence.
2. The present law does not limit activities of an entity registered as an agent of foreign influence based on this law.

Article 2. An agent of foreign influence

1. For the purposes of the present law, an agent of foreign influence means:
2. a) A non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entity, which is not founded by an administrative body, which is not a national sports federation of Georgia provided in the Law of Georgia on Sports or a blood bank provided in the Law of Georgia on Quality and Safety of Human Blood and its Components, and whose more than 20% of gross revenue received in a calendar year comes from a foreign power.
3. b) A broadcaster provided in the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, whose more than 20% of gross revenue received in a calendar year comes from a foreign power, excluding income received from sponsorship, teleshopping or commercial advertisements placed by companies or individual entrepreneurs, according to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting;
4. c) A legal entity that alone or jointly owns a print media outlet operating in Georgia and whose more than 20% of gross revenue received in a calendar year comes from a foreign power, excluding income received from commercial advertisements placed by companies or individual entrepreneurs in the media outlet.
5. d) A legal entity that owns or uses, jointly or with others, an Internet domain and/or Internet hosting intended for an Internet outlet disseminating mass information in the official language of Georgia, and whose more than 20% of gross revenue received in a calendar year comes from a foreign power, excluding income received from commercial advertisements placed by companies or individual entrepreneurs in the said media outlet.
6. For the purposes of this Article, „revenue“ means money and other material assets (any movable and immovable property). Value of any non-monetary revenue shall be calculated based on its market price, for the purposes of this Article.
7. For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this law, an entity provided in the same paragraph is considered to have received revenue, if it received money or became an owner or user of other types of material assets (movable or immovable property).
8. For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Article, source of revenue received by an entity provided in the same paragraph will be considered a foreign power, if:
9. a) the entity received revenue directly or indirectly from a foreign power;
10. b) the entity received revenue directly or indirectly from a legal entity that received revenue directly or indirectly from a foreign power;
11. c) Source of the revenue is not identified.

Article 3. Foreign power

For the purposes of the present law, a foreign power means:

1. a) An entity that constitutes part of a foreign country’s system of government;
2. b) A natural person, who is not a citizen of Georgia;
3. c) A legal entity not founded according to the Georgian legislation;
4. d) An organization (including a foundation, association, corporation, union and other type of organization) or other type of association of persons, founded according to the law of a foreign state and/or international law.

Article 4. Registration of an entity as an agent of foreign influence

1. An entity that meets the criteria of an agent of a foreign influence established by Article 2 of the present law shall, in January of a calendar year following the year in which it met the criteria, apply to a legal entity of public law – the National Agency of Public Registry („the Agency“) operating under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, through a legal entity of public law – the Public Service Hall, with a written request for registration as an agent of foreign influence. In this case, the Agency shall provide the entity within 2 working days with access to the appropriate website, in order for the entity to be able to fill out an application for registration as an agent of foreign influence („the application“) electronically, according to the form established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia, and submit it to the Agency.
2. Within 10 working days after being allowed to access the website provided in paragraph 1 of this Article, the entity shall fill out the application electronically, according to the form established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia, and submit it to the Agency.
3. The applicant shall include the following information (if such information is available) in the application, which also represents the applicant’s financial declaration:
4. a) The applicant’s identification data;
5. b) The applicant’s address;
6. c) The applicant’s website;
7. d) Information about source, amount and purpose of money or other types of material benefits received by the applicant during the previous calendar year;
8. e) Information about amount and purpose of money spent by the applicant during the previous calendar year;
9. f) The date of filling out the application;
10. The Agency shall, within 30 working days after submission of the application, examine and study the application. To that end, an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia may, according to the law, search for necessary information, including personal data. If the applicant meets the criteria for an agent of a foreign influence provided in Article 2 of this Law and the application has been filled out correctly and completely, the Agency shall, within 30 days of submission of the application, register the applicant as a foreign agent and include it in the Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence. If the application has been filled out in an incorrect and/or incomplete manner, the Agency shall give the applicant 10 working days to correct the fault. The applicant shall correct the fault within the said period. The Agency shall, within 5 working days after the mentioned period, register the applicant as an agent of foreign influence and include it in the Register of Agents of Foreign Influence, if the applicant meets the criteria of an agent of foreign influence established in Article 2 of the present law.
11. An entity shall be registered as an agent of foreign influence and included in the Register of Agents of Foreign Influence free of charge.
12. Procedure for registration of an entity as an agent of foreign influence and for maintaining the Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence, as well as form of the application are determined by the Minister of Justice of Georgia.

Article 5. Ensuring public access to the application, other relevant documents and the Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence

1. The request and the application provided in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the present law is public. The Agency shall, immediately after registering an entity as an agent of foreign influence, ensure public access to and publishing on the appropriate website of: the request submitted to the Agency by the entity, the application provided in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the present Article, as well as the entity’s current charter, other founding documents and the most recent extract about the entity from the Public Registry, if any.
2. Information included in the Register of Agents of Foreign Influence is public. The Agency shall ensure public access to and publishing on the appropriate website of the information.

Article 6. Annual financial declaration

1. An entity registered as an agent of foreign influence shall, in January of every year following its registration as an agent of foreign influence, fill out electronically according to the form established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia and submit to the Agency a financial declaration. In the financial declaration it shall correctly and fully include the information provided in paragraph 3 of Article 4 of this law (if any), as of the year previous to the year in which it submits the declaration to the Agency. The Agency shall, within 30 working days after it receives the financial declaration, examine and study the declaration. To that end, an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia may, according to the law, search for necessary information including personal data. If the financial declaration is filled out in an incorrect and/or incomplete manner, the Agency shall give the declarant 10 working days to correct the fault. The entity shall correct the fault within the mentioned timeframe.
2. The financial declaration provided in paragraph 1 of this Article and information included in the declaration is public. The Agency shall immediately ensure public access to and publishing of the financial declaration on the appropriate website.
3. The procedure for submitting the financial declaration provided in this Article, as well as the form of the financial declaration is established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia.

Article 7. Abolition of registration of an entity registered as an agent of foreign influence

1. If an entity registered as an agent of foreign influence no longer meets the criteria established in Article 2 of this law according to the data (circumstances) of the previous calendar year, may, when submitting to the Agency the financial declaration provided in Article 6 of this Law, submit a reasoned written application (in material form) to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and request abolition of its registration as an agent of foreign influence. In this case, an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia shall make a corresponding decision within 30 working days, after adequately examining and studying the matter. To that end, an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia may, according to the law, search for necessary information including personal data.
2. If a decision to abolish an entity’s registration as an agent of foreign influence is made, the Agency shall immediately remove the entity from the Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence and delete from the appropriate website information and documents previously made public according to this law, with regards to the entity.
3. The decision provided in paragraph 2 of this Article is public and is published on the appropriate website.
4. The procedure for abolishing registration of an entity as an agent of foreign influence is established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia.

Article 8. Monitoring

1. To identify an agent of foreign influence or to verify compliance with any of the requirements of this law, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia may, at any time, examine and study the issue accordingly, i.e., carry out monitoring („the monitoring“).
2. Monitoring may be initiated based on:
3. a) A decision of an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia;
4. b) A written application submitted to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia containing appropriate indications related to a particular agent of foreign influence.
5. With the aim of conducting monitoring, an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia may, according to the law, search for necessary information, including personal data.
6. An entity may be monitored for no more than once every six months.
7. If the monitoring has revealed that the entity fulfills the criteria of an agent of foreign influence established in Article 3 of this law but it has avoided registration as an agent of foreign influence, based on a request of an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the Agency shall register the entity as an agent of foreign influence, which shall not exempt the entity from the responsibility provided in paragraph 1 of Article 11 of this law. In this case, the entity shall, within the period of 10 working days, submit an application to the Agency in compliance with the requirements of this law.
8. The monitoring procedure is established by the Minister of Justice of Georgia.

Article 9. Responsibility

1. Avoiding registration as an agent of foreign influence or failing to submit the financial declaration provided in Article 6 of the present law within the timeframe prescribed by the same Article –

Shall result in imposition of a fine amounting to GEL 25 000.

2. Failure to comply with the requirements of paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the present law, failure to correct the fault according to paragraph 4 of Article 4 or paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the present law, or failure to comply with the obligation to submit the application provided in paragraph 5 of Article 8 of the present law –

Shall result in imposition of a fine amounting to GEL 10 000.

3. Commission of an act provided in paragraph 2 of the present Article by a person/entity, who has been penalized for committing an administrative offence provided in paragraph 2 of this Article or the present paragraph, 1 month after imposition of the administrative penalty –

Shall result in imposition of a fine amounting to GEL 20 000.

6. A report of an administrative offence provided in this Article is prepared by an authorized official of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. In case of commission of the mentioned administrative offence, proceedings shall be carried out according to the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia and other relevant legal acts.
7. Imposition of the responsibility provided in this Article shall not exempt the relevant entity from complying with the requirements of this law.
8. The responsibility provided in this Article may be imposed on an entity that committed the administrative offence only within 6 years after commission of the administrative offence.

Article 10. Transitional provisions

1. Within 60 days after entry into force of the present article:
2. a) Relevant agencies/officials shall adopt/issue subordinate legal acts required for implementation of the present law and ensure compliance of the subordinate legal acts with the present law;
3. b) The Ministry of Justice of Georgia and the Agency shall implement preliminary material/technical and other measures required for implementation of the present law.
4. An entity provided in Article 2(1) of the present law, which according to the 2022 data (circumstances) fulfills the criteria of an agent of foreign influence provided in the same article, shall, within 1 month after entry into force of the present paragraph, apply to the Agency through a legal entity of public law – the Public Service Hall, with a written request for registration as an agent of foreign influence. The procedures established in Article 4 of the law shall follow.

Article 11. Entry into force of the law

1. The present Law, excluding Articles 1-9 and paragraph 2 of Article 10, shall enter into force upon promulgation.
2. Articles 1-9 and paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the present law shall enter into force on the 60th day of promulgation.

President of Georgia
Salome Zourabichvili