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Minutes of the Meeting of Tuesday, 4 November 2014

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Minutes of the Meeting of Tuesday, 4 November 2014 Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire Euronest Parlamentarische Versammlung Euronest Парламентская Aссамблея Евронест COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL AFFAIRS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY Minutes of the meeting of Tuesday, 4 November 2014 Brussels The meeting was opened on 4 November 2014, at 9.15 am, with the Vice-Co-Chair Ms Naira ZOHRABYAN (Armenia) in the chair. Vice-Co-Chair Ms ZOHRABYAN welcomed all the participants and noted that Members would have to hold a discussion on the draft report of the Committee in view of the preparation of amendments, at a later stage. 1. Adoption of draft agenda The draft agenda was adopted without change. 2. Election of the EP Co-Chair and Vice-Co-Chairs of the Euronest PA Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy The following elections were made by acclamation: Co-Chair: Mr Michal BONI (Co-Chair, Poland, EPP); Vice-Co-Chairs: Ms Kati PIRI (Netherlands, S&D) and Ms Anna-Maria CORAZZA BILDT (Sweden, EPP). 3. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of the Euronest PA Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy of 11 February 2014 in Brussels Vice-Co-Chair Ms ZOHRABYAN informed that proposals for modification to the draft minutes of the meeting of 11 February 2014 should be sent to the secretariat of the Euronest PA by 5 November 2014, at 10:00 am. Should no proposal be submitted, the minutes would be deemed adopted without modification. 4. Presentation by Mr Richard TIBBELS, Head of Division, European External Action Service (EEAS), Division for Eastern Partnership, Regional cooperation & OSCE, on the development of the Eastern Partnership for 2014-17 and the work programme 2014-17 of the Eastern Partnership Platform 1 - "Democracy, Good governance and Stability" 1 AP 101.837v01-00 Mr TIBBELS outlined recent developments of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) in general, and then, country by country. The EU and its partners face challenging times and, in the current context, should not deflect from their objectives. The EU will move ahead by ensuring that partnerships go hand in hand with a high degree of differentiation. A tailor-made approach, as a key principle of the EaP, has already taken shape. Three Association Agreements between the EU on one side and, respectively, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine on the other were signed. A strategic partnership for modernisation between the EU and Azerbaijan is under negotiation. Both Armenia and the EU are ready to consider a new level of relations. Recently, the EU and Belarus started negotiating a visa facilitation agreement, while there is room for an enhanced dialogue on broader topics. For all the six partner countries, the EU is open and committed to enhance bilateral relations, having in mind the principle of inclusiveness of the EaP. The work programme of the EaP Platform 1 has to be seen in the light of the outcome of the EaP Summit held in Vilnius. The Platform is inclusive and concentrates on three priority areas, namely: i. increased respect for human rights and fundamental values, fight against corruption, ii. enhancement of the independence of the judiciary, iii. reforms of public administration and cooperation on asylum, migration and effective border management. Mr TIBBELS concluded by underlining that parliamentary relationships were extremely important and were strengthened by contacts within the framework of the EaP Civil Society Forum and the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP). Mr Tevan POGHOSYAN (Armenia) asked about the risk of losing the regional component of the EaP under the differentiation process, which he saw as an individualization process of the EaP. Referring to twinning activities, he also asked about the future of regional programmes under the forthcoming phase of implementation of the European Neighbourhood Instrument and the content of programmes regarding local government development. Mr David DARCHIASHVILI (Georgia) noted that EU MS visa issuance to Georgian citizens became only possible at EU MS consulates instead of border entries. He asked whether such restrictive measures were necessary. Referring to suspicions of selective justice in Georgia, he also asked how the EU would apply the principle of conditionality when granting its support to partner countries. Mr Elkhan SULEYMANOV (Azerbaijan) called on the EU to treat Azerbaijan as a full-fledged member of the Eastern Partnership, respect it as a sovereign state and stop unjustified pressures on the country. Azerbaijan seeks more cooperation with the EU provided that the EU treats it as an equal partner, like it does with some other partner countries of the EaP. In particular, Azerbaijan would like to see the EU providing insurances about the country's territorial integrity and security as it does in the case of Ukraine. Referring to the report of the Committee of Human Rights of the Council of Europe on Azerbaijan, Mr SULEYMANOV explained that the mentioned cases of "political prisoners" fell within the judicial and legal spheres and not in the political one. He regretted that the European Parliament had recently adopted resolutions on human rights issues in Azerbaijan, based on unjustified accusations. In that respect, he mentioned that Ms Leyla Yunus was accused of state betrayal and was under investigation. Mr Alexander ARZOUMANIAN (Armenia) regretted the decisions that the Armenian government had been forced to make with respect to changing its foreign policy towards the EU and joining the Eurasian Economic Union. He called on the EU not to punish Armenia but to sign the political provisions of the Association Agreement, before January 2015. A joint EU-Armenia platform in the economic area could also be launched in order to harmonize standards. Mr ARZOUMANIAN underlined the need to pay attention to human rights under the monitoring of multi- and bilateral relations within the EaP and voiced concerns about the specific case of Ms Leila Yunus in Azerbaijan. 2 AP 101.837v01-00 Vice-Co-Chair Ms ZOHRABYAN noted that the Council of Europe had given a clear definition and adopted clear criteria against which the status of "political prisoners" should be assessed. Mr TIBBELS, answering the questions, said that there was no contradiction between regional and differentiated bilateral approaches of the EaP. There was no intention of losing the regional component of the EaP. The European Commission had recently approved the 2014-17 ENI regional programmes which would bring support in important areas, such as democracy building, energy and transport, education and border management. On local government development, it is worth noting that every partner country has its own constitutional setup and different level of delegated powers to local authorities. Twinning activities are rightly an element of regional programmes. Furthermore, the conclusions of an ongoing study providing comparative analyses on local governance should guide the European Commission and partners' authorities on refining support programmes. As regards Georgia and visa policy issues, Mr TIBBELS first expressed confidence in the capacity and efforts of Georgia to achieve the EU-Georgia Visa Liberalisation Action Plan and saw good prospects to reach a visa free regime between the EU and Georgia. He also noted that the EU had expressed concerns in the past about the functioning of justice and supported the reform of judiciary to a very large extent in Georgia. On the basis of the 'more for more' principle, the EU can tailor the level of its financial support to the commitment of partners to implement reforms. If Georgia wants to go further in its relations with the EU and, in a way, wants to impose a conditionality to itself, the effective implementation of the Association Agreement, in all its aspects, is absolutely crucial. As to Azerbaijan, the country is a full-fledged member of the Eastern Partnership. As this Partnership is based on common values, the EU seeks to see how they are turned into deeds in every partner country. The EU is not able to offer a DCFTA to Azerbaijan as the country is not a member of the World Trade Organisation. However, a strategic modernization partnership is on the table and could be signed under certain conditions. Finally, he noted that the EU fully respects the decisions made by the Armenian leadership and wants the deepest possible relationship with Armenia. Bilateral exploratory talks on the future of the relationship are on-going, considering that Armenia has to work out the requirements of the Eurasian Economic Union and what they entail for its relation with the EU. 5. Presentation and exchange of views with Mr Steven BLOCKMANS, Senior Research Follow, Centre for European Policy Studies on the challenges facing the Eastern Partnership, in the context of sanctions implemented by EU and Russia, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and threats over security in Europe. The presentation of Mr BLOCKMANS covered the achievements and key structural challenges of the Eastern Partnership that he identified. The most acute challenge for the success of the EaP is the one presented by Russia, which chooses to view the EU’s policy towards the shared neighbourhood as a zero-sum game for geopolitical dominance. Russia’s punitive measures in response to partner countries’ aspirations to associate more closely with the EU and Moscow’s coercive counter-offer to join the Eurasian Economic Union are cases in point. Mr BLOCKMANS saw developments of the Russian policy as hardly predictable and considered that the EU was right in keeping up its sanctions policy in reaction to a continuation of Russian violations of international law by waging war in Ukraine. He then raised the issue of how to take into account the ties between partner countries and Russia and the interests of the latter. Given Russia’s negative dedication to the EaP, the EU needs to coordinate its policy towards its partners with that towards Russia.
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