A delegation of Georgian lawmakers led by MP Maka Bochorishvili, chair of the European Integration Committee, traveled to Yerevan to hold the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly sittings and meet Armenian leadership on February 21-22.
MP Bochorishvili along with MEP Andrius Kubilius serves as the Co-President of the Assembly that brings together parliamentary delegations of the European Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The Co-Presidents of Euronest PA held meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on February 21 to discuss prospects of further cooperation within the Eastern Partnership format, as well as regional developments and challenges to its security.
The Georgian Parliament stated that the sides in both meetings stressed the need to ensure peace and stability in the South Caucasus.
MEP Kubilius, MP Levan Karumidze and other members of the Euronest PA Bureau also held a meeting with acting President of Armenia’s National Assembly Hakob Arshakyan on February 22.
In Yerevan, the Assembly also convened for a Bureau meeting and two joint committee meetings, where they exchanged views on Russia’s military build-up in Ukraine, security in the South Caucasus, as well as energy security challenges for Eastern Partnertnership countries in the current geopolitical context.
The Assembly’s Bureau Statement on February 22 condemned Moscow’s “illegal” recognition of Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions, calling it “a blatant violation of international law, of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as of the Minsk agreements.”
The Bureau also noted that “Russia’s annexation and illegal occupation of the parts of territories of Georgia, as well as the unresolved conflict in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova pose a serious threat to the region and Europe as a whole.”
It called on “the EU institutions to maintain a credible long-term perspective” on the accession of aspiring partners, and on the governments and parliaments of the Eastern Partnership countries to “to remain united and steadfast in their comprehensive reforms on democracy, rule of law as well as in the economic and social sphere.”
Other issues, such as challenges and opportunities of the European Green Deal for EaP states, state of governance in the Eastern Partners, economic development of capital cities in the post-COVID-19 reality, as well as the compatibility and approximation of vaccine programs of the EU and EaP states were also discussed at the Assembly’s joint committee sessions.
A working document presented on each of these issues will be voted at the upcoming 10th Ordinary Session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in April 2022 in Chișinău, Moldova.
The Georgian delegation included GD MPs Levan Karumidze and Khatia Tsilosani, deputy chair and member of the European Integration Committee, respectively, and Mariam Lashkhi, deputy chair of Foreign Relations Committee.
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