The European Union's ambassador to Georgia said on Tuesday that the bloc had frozen 30 million euros ($32 million) in military aid to Georgia amid what he said was "a low point" in relations between the two, APA reports citing Georgia.
Georgia's parliament in June passed into law a bill requiring groups that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents, criticised by the domestic opposition and the West as a Russian-inspired measure to crack down on dissent.
Speaking at an event in Tbilisi, ambassador Pawel Herczynski said: "For the moment, the money that we have planned to transfer to the Georgian ministry of defence, which is 30 million euros, has been frozen. And this is only a first step. There will be other steps."
Herczynski said that the bloc would "gradually diminish" aid to the Georgian government, and would shift instead towards supporting the country's civil society and media.
The move is the first direct consequence of the downturn in Georgia's traditionally warm relations with the EU over the foreign agent law, and comes after the United States indefinitely postponed military exercises with the Georgian army last week.
The law requires all organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, or face harsh fines and disclosure requirements.
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