Hundreds of serving employees of the country’s foreign, defence, education and justice ministries on Friday signed open letters denouncing the freeze in talks as unconstitutional.
A string of private universities have said they are suspending studies amid the unrest, while business groups have called for the government to review its stance.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, which won almost 54 per cent of the vote in an October election that opposition parties say was rigged, said on Thursday that it was freezing membership talks over what it said was EU “blackmail” of Georgia.
The move caps months of deteriorating relations between Georgia and the West, which has accused the Tbilisi government of authoritarian and pro-Russian inclinations.
Georgian Dream has this year passed laws against so-called “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights, which critics say are draconian in nature and Russian in inspiration.
The party, which is widely seen as controlled by its founder, billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, says it still wants to eventually join the EU, and that the laws it has passed are necessary to defend Georgia’s traditional values.
The EU’s ambassador to Georgia described Georgian Dream’s stance as “heartbreaking” on Friday and condemned the crackdown on protesters.
