EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DELEGATION TO THE PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION COMMITTEES EU-ARMENIA, EU-AZERBAIJAN AND EU-GEORGIA INFORMATION NOTE ON THE WORK OF THE DELEGATION TO THE EU-ARMENIA, EU-AZERBAIJAN AND EU-GEORGIA PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION COMMITTEES DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES OF THE UNION ______________ 5 June 2014/rev.030714 PK/fc 1 INTRODUCTION Our bilateral relations: where we stand The relations between the European Parliament and the parliaments of the three South Caucasus countries- Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - are currently conducted within the framework of bilateral Partnership and Cooperation Agreements, which all entered into force in July 1999. This framework vis-à-vis Azerbaijan and Armenia is not expected to change in the short term. On the other hand, the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, which features an ambitious Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement dimension, was signed on 27 June 2014 and is now likely to enter in provisional application before November 2014. This will lead to the further intensification of structured parliamentary dialogue with Georgian legislators in particular, reflecting the clear progress seen in EU-Georgia relations these last few years. EU cooperation and financial assistance to the country (see below) further reflects this fact. This said, the standing PCAs have all already initiated formal interparliamentary cooperation – with three Parliamentary Cooperation Committees exercising parliamentary control over their implementation. Each PCC has the right to receive information from the Cooperation Council and the Cooperation Committee set by the respective PCA: PCCs can also adopt recommendations addressed to the competent Cooperation Committees. The EP-Georgia PCC should however be replaced, before 2015, by an EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee, in order to perform the joint democratic scrutiny function over the proceedings of the Association Council which will be established by the EU-Georgia AA/DCFTA. Current priorities and funding of the ENP (European Neighborhood Policy) Action Plan As of May 2014, the indicative financial allocation foreseen under the European Neighborhood Policy Instrument for each of the South Caucasus Countries for the years 2014-2020 is as follows: Armenia: EUR 252.000.000 – 308.000.000 Private Sector Development 35% Public Administration Reform 25% Justice Sector Reform 20% Capacity Development & Institution building 15% Civil Society 5% Azerbaijan: EUR 139.000.000 – 169.000.000 Regional Development 40% Justice Sector Reform 20% Education & skills development 20% Capacity Development & Institution building 15% Civil Society 5% Georgia EUR 610.000.000 – 746.000.000 Agriculture and rural development 30% Public administration reform 25% Justice Sector Reform 25% Capacity Development & Civil society 20% 2 Our partner parliaments The Armenian National Assembly has 131 Members, last elected for a five year mandate in 2012; the Republican Party (EPP affiliated) enjoys 70 seats; the governmental coalition also comprises the 6 MPs from the Rule of Law party, giving it a comfortable majority. The opposition comprises Prosperous Armenia (36 MPs), the Armenian National Congress (7 MPs), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (5 MPs) and the Heritage Faction (5 MPs). Speaker Galust Sahakyan (RP) was elected in mid-2014, as his predecessor, Hovik Abrahamyan, was appointed Prime Minister. The EU-Armenia PCC is co-chaired, on the Armenian side, by Mr. Samvel Farmanyan (RP). The Azeri Milli Mejlis is chaired since 2005 by Mr. Ogtay Asadov. It comprises 125 Members, elected for a 5 year mandate in 2010 – meaning that the next elections are due next year. The ruling New Azerbaijan Party has the majority with 73 seats; as to the other MPs, their nominal independence is quite compatible with their government- leaning positions. The EU-Azerbaijan PCC is co-chaired, on the Azeri side, by Vice-Speaker Valeh Alesgerov. The Georgian Parliament, transferred in Kutaisi since 2012, is chaired by Speaker Davit Usupashvili (Georgian Dream – Republican Party); the Georgian Dream coalition enjoys a majority of 85 seats in the 151-seat assembly, whereas 65 seats belong to the opposition United National Movement (EPP affiliated). The ruling coalition regroups a number of parties which came under the same umbrella in the last general elections in October 2012: Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (47 seats), Free Democrats (10 seats; ALDE affiliated), Republican Party (9 seats; ALDE affiliated), National Forum (6 seats), Conservatives (6 seats), and Entrepreneurs (6 seats). The next elections are scheduled to take place in the second half of 2016. The EU-Georgia PCC is actively co-chaired, on the Georgian side, by Ms Tinatin Khidasheli (Georgian Dream – Republican Party). Our last interparliamentary meetings EU-Armenia: 14th PCC meeting, February 2014 Strasbourg. For the first time in fifteen years of parliamentary dialogue, no Joint Recommendations were adopted. The main stumbling block was not the future course of EU-Armenia relations following Armenia’s U-turn in September 2013, when President Sargysyan, to the general surprise, shelved the AA/DCFTA which had been negotiated and opted, in Moscow, for integration into the Russian-led Customs Union instead; parliamentarians discussed this issue in depth, and both sides concurred at the need to find a new 3 contractual framework that would replace the, outdated, 1999 EU-Armenia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. However, no agreement could be found on common wording on Nagorno-Karabakh – with the EP Delegation, in particular, bound by the last positions on the matter adopted in the EP Plenary. In the absence of any agreed text that would also cover this issue, Co-Chair Farmanyan deemed the draft unacceptable in its entirety, without even calling for a formal vote. EU-Azerbaijan: 12th meeting of the PCC, Brussels, June 2012 This 2012 PCC meeting, the last in the previous legislature, examined in detail the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in the presence of Commissioner Füle, EU Special Representative Philippe Lefort, and Deputy Foreign Minister Mammad-Guliyev. EUSR Lefort particularly refuted accusations of the EU adopting double standards vis-à-vis territorial integrity issues in various conflict areas (Kosovo, Georgia) and stressed that neither use of force nor the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh were acceptable. As to EU/Azerbaijan relations, negotiations on the future Association Agreement were clearly lagging behind; no joint recommendations were adopted, largely due to a diametrically different appreciation on human rights issues. It should be mentioned that a Bureau mission of the Delegation also took place in early 2014 to Baku; while this did not constitute formally speaking a fully-fledged PCC, it did provide an opportunity to review the state-of-play of EU-Azerbaijan relations from a parliamentary perspective. Thus, Milli Mejlis MPs attributed the lack of progress in the EU/Azerbaijan association agreement negotiations exclusively to the EU side, due to a perceived lack of willingness to recognise Azerbaidjan’s territorial integrity in the draft. 16th EU-Georgia PCC meeting, Tbilisi, March 2014 The meeting took place in the heavy shadow of Crimean developments – and was marked by a genuine apprehension that these could prefigure other agressive Russian actions in disputed or breakaway territories, from South Ossetia to Nagorno Karabakh. A constructive approach nonetheless prevailed during the meeting –both between and, crucially, inside each parliamentary delegation. Thus the joint recommendations adopted highlighted the need to pursue legal and judicial reform by building on the work undertaken by EU Special Advisor Thomas Hammarberg; common wording was also found on the delicate selective justice issue; both Delegations did underline, with satisfaction, the recent EP position which made references to a possible EU accession for Georgia, based on the principles set out by article 49 of the Treaty. A field-trip to the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Gori allowed, furthermore, seeing first-hand the ongoing process of ‘borderisation’ by participating in an EUMM patrol –thus carrying a symbolic dimension and a message of EU solidarity. 4 HISTORY AND FUNCTIONING OF THE EP DELEGATION The European Parliament has, so far, been represented on the three PCCs by the Delegation for relations with the South Caucasus Republics (D-SCA), which was chaired during the 7th legislature (2009-2014) by Mr Milan CABRNOCH (ECR - Czech Republic), assisted in his tasks by 1st Vice-Chair Ms Mojca KLEVA (S&D, Slovenia) and 2nd Vice Chair Vytautas LANDSBERGIS (EPP, Lithuania). This Delegation was formally created back in 1999, first Chaired until 2004 by Ms Ursula SCHLEICHER (EPP-ED, Germany) and, from 2004 to 2009, by Ms Marie Anne ISLER-BEGUIN (Verts/ALE - France). Prior to 1999, interaction took place at the initiative of the EP and in the absence of any contractual obligation – in the sense that contacts were not foreseen explicitly by any instrument of international law. The EP Delegation was first chaired (1994-1996) by Mr Antonios TRAKATELLIS (EPP - Greece) and then (1997-1999) by Mr Alexandros ALAVANOS (GUE/NGL - Greece). Before 1994, the area was covered by the Delegation for relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States, under Ms Magdalene HOFF (PES - Germany). Also thanks to the work undertaken by the Delegation, developments in the South Caucasus have been examined in a number of EP resolutions