The 8th ordinary session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, an annual forum for members of the European Parliament and parliaments of the Eastern Partnership nations, held in Tbilisi on December 8-10, has adopted five resolutions.
Civil.ge focuses on two of them concerning Georgia:
Resolution on the future of the Trio Plus Strategy 2030: building a future of Eastern Partnership
The resolution echoes “Trio 2030 Strategy” initiative introduced by Lithuanian MEP Andrius Kubilius back on November 12 to the European Parliament. It also echoes the calls for “differentiation” in Eastern Partnership (EaP) with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine that have higher ambitions for European integration that three other nations of the EaP.
It therefore “asks to initiate a discussion on forward-looking EaP strategic agenda for the next decade to move forward in promoting a more ambitious use of differentiation, more for more and less for less principles, and to present a New Flagship Initiative – the Trio Plus Strategy 2030”.
Significantly, the resolution suggested that the Trio Plus Strategy 2030 “would establish the European Trio Process with deeper integration instruments for the EU and its associated countries, as it was done by the Berlin Process initiated in 2014, which aimed to strengthen the EU leadership and a coalition of like-minded EU Member States for the integration of Western Balkan countries into the EU.”
Suggesting “an active EU open door policy for those Eastern Partnership countries that achieve a significant and valuable progress,” the resolution also urged that the Trio Plus Strategy 2030 will be “an ambitious European geopolitical instrument employing a new generation of institutions and policies, sustainable trade and stabilization agreements and their instruments.”
Importantly, it noted that “the success of the Eastern Partnership with inclusion of the European Trio Process and the Trio Plus Strategy 2030 will be crucial for both the Eastern Neighborhood countries and the EU, because it is the best input for the creation of a Europe that is “whole, free and at peace.”
It then added that “this success will eradicate the dividing lines on the European continent, which still separate Eastern Partnership countries from the rest of the EU,” and that “further setbacks to democracy, reforms and the rule of law and the erosion of a European orientation in Trio countries will jeopardize the Trio Plus Strategy 2030, as described above.”
Furthermore, the resolution called for “the urgent development of joint mechanisms to withstand Kremlin hybrid threats undermining EU unity and security in those EaP countries striving for approximation with the EU.”
Resolution on Parliamentary oversight as a tool to strengthen democracy, accountability and effectiveness of state institutions in the EaP countries
Noting about tackling challenges to parliamentary oversight activities, the resolution reads that it “appreciates that the situation in Armenia and Georgia evolved during the last years through consecutive reforms of constitution, moving towards pure parliamentary political systems, followed by peaceful changes of governments through non-violent, Velvet revolution in Armenian case and via elections in Georgian case.”
It then called on all six EaP countries that “further reforms are needed to strengthen parliamentary oversight,” reiterating that “Eastern Neighborhood Parliaments, when adopting any new legislative act, should not over-rush and need to adjust procedures allowing extended debates with opposition and other stakeholders on the content and details of the reforms in order to strengthen the role of the main legislative body’s oversight.”
The resolution also urged “political parties to address electoral reforms through a cross-party dialogue to ensure broad political support”, further, calling “on the authorities to implement OSCE/ODIHR election observation recommendations well before future elections.”
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