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Senior MPs from Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine Agree to Boost Coordination

Lawmakers from parliamentary committees on European integration and foreign affairs of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine have agreed to launch an inter-parliamentary cooperation initiative of these three EU Eastern Partnership countries to coordinate polices on issues ranging from EU integration to trade and security.

A joint declaration, adopted on May 5 upon conclusion of a two-day forum of MPs from and chairpersons of parliamentary committees on European integration and foreign affairs held in Tbilisi, reiterates “common goal for the European integration” and stresses on importance of “coordinated diplomatic” efforts to counter common security challenges.

In the joint declaration chairpersons of the parliamentary committees on European integration and foreign affairs welcome EU visa-free travel for Moldova, which was introduced a year ago, and say that they are “expecting a positive decision on granting visa-free regime for Georgia and Ukraine at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga” on May 21-22.

Decision on the issue will largely depend on the European Commission’s report, which is expected to be released next week, and which will detail how Georgia is fulfilling its reform commitments under the visa liberalisation action plan – a set of detailed requirements that a country should meet in order to be granted short-term visa-free regime in the Schengen area.

Senior lawmakers from the three countries have agreed to hold annual meetings of chairpersons of the parliamentary committees on European integration and foreign affairs “to assess, review, coordinate and set political agenda for political association and economic integration with the possibility of ad hoc meetings upon the call of any of the three countries.” They have also agreed to launch inter-parliamentary working groups among the members of the committees and to set a regular communication channel among the staffers of the committees for the purpose of sharing information and best practices.

Speaking at an opening of the forum, which was  on May 4, Georgian Parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili said that lawmakers from the three countries “need even more frequent and active contacts in order to have more coordination and to better tackle our common challenges.”

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