The November 2017 Eastern Partnership Summit should pave the way to set up a trust fund for Eastern partners and reward reforms by offering them customs union, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) say. Today the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament passed a resolution on recommendations for the Eastern Partnership.
MEPs welcomed the significant progress made since last Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit, held in Riga in 2015 and pointed out that some Eastern partners have made major reforms and that Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova now benefit from free trade and visa-free regimes with the European Union (EU).
For the next Eastern Partnership Summit, Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs recommended:
* setting up a trust fund for Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, which could focus on private and public investments in social and economic infrastructure,
* creating an “EaP+” model for associated countries that have made substantial progress on EU-related reforms in order to offer them the possibilities of joining the customs union, energy union, digital union or even Schengen area and abolishing mobile roaming tariffs,
* supporting economic reforms aimed at phasing out monopolies, limiting the role of oligarchs, preventing money laundering and tax evasion,
* maintaining collective pressure on Russia to resolve the conflicts in Eastern Ukraine, the occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Transnistria, and supporting the deployment of an armed Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) police mission in Eastern Ukraine.
Parliament’s co-rapporteur Laima Andrikienė said that the upcoming EaP Summit should be relevant for all six EaP countries. “The Eastern Partnership Summit should inject new dynamism, set out a clear political vision and remain relevant for all six Eastern partners, who have differing aspirations. We propose an attractive longer-term ‘EaP+’ model for associated countries that have made substantial progress in implementing reforms”, she said.
Co-rapporteur Knut Fleckenstein stressed the meaning of Eastern Partnership. “The Eastern Partnership is about more than signing agreements at biannual summits. It is about supporting the EU’s Eastern European partners in implementing important reforms in the areas of democracy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms. We want to see more progress on reforms and better implementation of previously agreed initiatives”, Fleckenstein said.
The resolution on recommendations for the Eastern Partnership was passed by 40 votes to 6, with 1 abstention. The full house is expected to vote on the draft text at its November session in Strasbourg. The Eastern Partnership was launched in 2009 to deepen political and economic ties between the EU and the six Eastern European partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The 5th Eastern Partnership summit will take place in Brussels on 24 November 2017.
