Politics

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RECOMMENDATIONS ON EaP DEVELOPMENT

16 november, 2017

The European Parliament welcomed the successes reached by Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia on their paths of European integration, and approved Recommendations for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) in the run-up to the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels on November 24.

The Resolution, adopted on Wednesday, says that such Eastern neighbors as Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia have carried out serious reforms, and are already receiving advantages from free trade and visa-free regime with the European Union.

However, the European parliamentarians stood up for clear-cut criteria of future cooperation, and stressed that the European Union will never be ratifying whatever agreements with countries that do not respect European values and intimidate human-right activists and journalists.

In the recommendations issued to the Eastern Partnership Summit, the European Parliament proposes, in particular, to create a target fund for Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia that will focus on private and public investing in social and economic infrastructure development.

The European parliamentarians spoke out also for creating a model called “Eastern Partnership+” (EaP+) for associated countries that have reached a tangible progress in EU-related reforms so that to offer them a possibility to join the EU Customs Union, EU Energy Union, EU Digital Union, and even the Schengen Zone, and to cancel tariffs on mobile roaming payments.

They recommended the Brussels Summit to support in the 3 countries the economic reforms aimed at gradual cancelling of monopolies, at restricting the roles played by oligarchs, at preventing money laundering and tax evasion.

The European Parliament also stood up for continuing collective pressure on Russia for resolving conflicts in eastern Ukraine and “in the occupied territories” of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria

The Resolution was approved by 519 votes, with 114 votes against and 47 abstentions. Now the document will be sent to the European Commission and the Council of Europe.

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