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Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union have been put on ice, just months after the South Caucasus country was granted candidate status, the bloc’s ambassador announced.

Speaking at an event on EU enlargement in Tbilisi on Tuesday, Brussels’ envoy, Paweł Herczyński, said that “regrettably, Georgia’s EU accession process is stopped for now” after a decision by the leaders of member countries last month, POLITICO reported.

The move comes after widespread condemnation over the governing Georgian Dream party’s introduction of a new law that will brand Western-backed NGOs and media outlets as “foreign agents.” Critics and legal experts say the legislation mirrors rules used by Russia to crush dissent and shutter civil society groups.

According to Herczyński, the decision to freeze Georgia’s membership process will also see the suspension of financial assistance from the European Peace Facility, the EU’s off-budget resilience fund, with €30 million in payments paused. Sectors like agriculture, winemaking and other key industries are dependent on support from the EU and U.S. aid agencies.

“It is sad to see EU-Georgia relations at such a low point, when they could have been at an all-time high,” Herczyński said.