EU halts Georgia's accession to the bloc, freezes financial aid over much-criticized law

The EU ambassador in Georgia says its accession to the bloc has been halted some financial support frozen over a new law that critics feared would curb democratic freedoms. According to Pawel Herczynski, EU leaders made the decision to halt the process during the last summit of the European Council. The Georgian law requires media, nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. EU officials have repeatedly denounced the law as undemocratic and said it would hinder Georgia’s path to EU membership.