The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a report
prepared jointly by Laima Liucija ANDRIKIENĖ (EPP, LT) and
Knut FLECKENSTEIN (S&D, DE) on a European Parliament
recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the EEAS on the
Eastern Partnership, in the run-up to the November 2017
Summit.
As a reminder, the Eastern Partnership is based on a
shared commitment between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,
Moldova, Ukraine and the European Union to deepen their relations
and to respect international law and fundamental values, including
democracy, the rule of law, human rights, fundamental freedoms and
gender equality, as well as to the social market economy,
sustainable development and good governance.
Members called on Parliament to make the following
recommendations to the Council, the Commission and the
EEAS.
1) The future of the Eastern
Partnership: Members called to ensure
that the November 2017 Summit injects new dynamism into the
Eastern Partnership and set a clear political vision for the future
of the Eastern Partnership as a long-term policy.
The Partnership should in particular:
- meet the high expectations of citizens in all the
partner countries as regards eradicating corruption,
fighting organised crime and bolstering the rule of law and good
governance;
- strength civil society in the partner countries
and encourage electoral reforms;
- ensure that the outcomes of Summit provide a new
impetus including the delivery of tangible results for citizens,
notably in terms of employment, reducing socioeconomic
disparities, transport, connectivity, energy independence, mobility
and education;
- pursue efforts aimed at tackling unemployment,
especially youth unemployment;
- promote the implementation of anti-discrimination
policies in all sectors of society; to ensure gender equality
in public policies;
- increase mobility between the EU and partner
countries (support Moldova, Georgia
and Ukraine in implementing the visa liberalisation agreement, open
visa dialogues with Armenia, encourage progress by Azerbaijan in
the implementation of Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements
(VFA/RA) and finalise negotiations on VFA/RA with
Belarus;
- create a more favourable business environment and
adequate access to sources of financing, including through the
EU4Business initiative;
- ensure full respect for international law and
agreements on nuclear safety and environmental
protection;
- commit to sustaining the unity of action among
EU Member States in maintaining collective pressure on
Russia, whose military presence in the region has nevertheless
grown over the past years, in particular through strengthened
targeted restrictive measures;
- solve the conflict in eastern Ukraine through full and genuine implementation of the Minsk
agreements, solve the conflict between Russia and Georgia,
re-establishing Ukraine’s full sovereignty in
Crimea;
- fully cooperate with the EU in tackling challenges
such as illegal migration, terrorism, cybercrime, human
trafficking, smuggling and illicit trade.
2) Implementation of the Eastern
Partnership: the objectives should
be, inter alia, to:
- reiterate the principle of differentiation and
emphasise that the partnership aims to create the necessary
conditions for close political association and economic
integration, including participation in EU programmes;
- acknowledge the European aspirations of Moldova,
Georgia and Ukraine, recalling that
any prospect of accession to the EU requires progress in the
implementation of reforms, notably in the areas of the rule of law,
respect for human rights and good governance;
- ensure that cooperation and support to partners are
subject to strict and controlled conditionality, and that EU
financial assistance is conditional on the development and
implementation of reforms;
- support the multilateral dimension of the
Eastern Partnership through transnational civil society platforms,
cross-border projects such as people-to-people programmes involving
intercultural dialogue and the younger generation;
- maintain that EU support should be tailor-made
to match the level of shared ambition regarding cooperation with
each partner following the principles of both ‘more for
more’ and ‘less for less’;
- ask the Commission, the European Investment Bank and
other multilateral financial institutions to work towards the
successful implementation of the Investment Plan for Europe and of
a dedicated support mechanism for Eastern Partnership
countries committed to implementing the association
agreements;
- request the establishment of a trust fund for
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova and consider holding a donors’
conference for Ukraine in support of the country’s
humanitarian needs induced by the conflict in the East and the
annexation of Crimea;
- reiterate its strong support for parliamentary
scrutiny of the Eastern Partnership policy.
Lastly, Parliament's willingness to increase its
monitoring of the implementation of international agreements with
the eastern partners and to increase its scrutiny of EU support
provided in this respect.