Baltic, Iceland ministers head to Georgia to protest controversial law

Ministers from the Baltics and Iceland will on Tuesday head to Georgia to urge Tbilisi to scrap a bill that has sparked weeks of protests and warnings that it will derail the ex-Soviet republic's chances of joining the EU, Lithuania's top diplomat said.

Georgia has been for weeks gripped by protests over the Russia-styled "foreign influence" bill, which has been condemned by the European Union and the United States.

Georgia's parliament adopted it in its third and final reading on Tuesday. It will now head to the president for an expected veto, which the ruling party has the votes in parliament to override.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told AFP that the bill "is incompatible with the country's pro-European direction".

"Today, we are travelling to Georgia with the Icelandic, Estonian and Latvian (foreign) ministers to express our concerns to politicians and meet with civil society," he said.

"We call on the Georgian government to withdraw this bill and to reaffirm its commitment to European integration."

Lithuania and fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia were previously part of the Soviet Union but are now members of the European Union and NATO.

They are staunch supporters of Georgia's aspirations to join the EU and NATO but are concerned about the pro-Western future of the Caucasus country as critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of eroding democracy.

On Wednesday, the ministers plan to meet Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who opposes the law, as well as the head of the parliament and the foreign minister, Landsbergis said.

They are also expected to join the thousands of people who have taken to the streets to protest the law, he said.

The 'foreign influence' bill requires non-governmental organisations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as bodies "pursuing the interests of a foreign power".

Russia has used a similar law to crack down on dissent.