Eastern partnership to launch its parliamentary assembly soon
The March of 2010 will see the opening of the European Union/Eastern Partnership Parliamentary Assembly, called to become a political mechanism of cooperation between the European Union and its six eastern neighbors, Igor Corman, Chairman of the parliamentary Standing Committee for Foreign Policy and European Integration, told a briefing here on Monday.
In his words, the Assembly will consist of 120 deputies - 10 each from Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and 60 from the European Parliament. The Assembly will have two co-chairpersons and 10 deputy chairpersons, and will be holding its working sessions once a year. The Assembly will be taking resolutions and making recommendations for EU-Eastern Partnership summits, preparing reports on the Eastern Partnership activities, etc.
Corman highlighted the main problem Moldova comes across on its way towards European integration - absence of the Moldovan topic from the European countries' agenda.
"In April, we will organize conferences in Chisinau and subsequently in Brussels to discuss the problems standing before Moldova as a part of Europe. Regretfully, the European mass media are more interested in covering negative events taking place here, whereas we have no financial means for broadcasting over the European television or for publishing articles in European periodicals. So, we shall be popularizing our image through direct contacts with European parliamentarians and by using the backing of some political foundations, e.g. the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is in charge of the said two conferences", Igor Corman said.
In his opinion, Moldova should achieve tangible results in its visa liberalization efforts within maximum 2 years, "otherwise our citizens will start hunting individually for the passports of European states in order to travel freely across Europe".
The Eastern Partnership Initiative, put forward by Poland and Sweden in the spring of 2008, envisages the European Union's rapprochement with eastern neighbors - Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorsky called it "a practical and ideological continuation of the EU European Neighbourhood Policy". A summit dedicated to the initiative launching was held in Prague on May 7, 2009. The European Union decided to provide, in 2009-2013, a total of €600 million for the program realization.
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