European Parliament resolution supports Georgia ahead of Eastern Partnership summit

The European Parliament says that three Eastern Partners – Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova – have done well with their reform agenda so they deserve to be offered greater benefits at the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit.

Today the parliament backed the resolution recommending for Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova to be allowed to join the customs or energy union.

The resolution also calls for establishing a trust fund for these three nations, and urges that pressure is kept on Russia to resolve conflicts in the EU eastern neighbourhood.

• See the full document here

The fifth Eastern Partnership summit will take place in Brussels on November 24. At the event, the European Parliament wants the following to be done:

• 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 to offer them the possibility of joining the customs union, energy union, digital union or even the 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.

The resolution was adopted by 519 votes to 114, with 47 abstentions, the European Parliament’s press office said.

Before all members of parliament voted on the resolution, the document passed at the foreign affairs committee last week.

Laima Andrikiene, Lithuanian member of the European Parliament and one of the authors of the resolution said that the document proposes very concrete steps to guarantee that the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy is a success.

"[These are] the Eastern Partnership Plus format, which includes a trust fund, a new European Investment Plan and financial support mechanism for the implementation of the Association Agreements. It is not dedicated to oligarchs, but to ordinary people in fields such as energy savings, jobs, public service or reconstruction”, she said.

Co-rapporteur Knut Fleckenstein added that accession to the customs union, energy union, digital union, the Schengen area and the gradual abolition of roaming charges provide a wide range of ways in which this Eastern Partnership can and should be developed further.

"The prerequisite for this is the implementation of reforms we agreed upon. The summit must not only talk about what has been achieved, but what needs to be done and where to do homework”, Fleckenstein said.

As early as today, the parliament’s resolution will be sent to the European Commission and the European Council and will ask them to make sure that the reforms made by the Eastern Partners are rewarded at the summit.