New Flagship Initiative for EU Associated/DCFTA countries
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, November 15
Lithuanian MPs from the European People's Party presented their vision for the EU's Eastern Partnership Development Strategy.
The initiative envisages launching the "trio process" and opening the prospect of joining the EU for those Partnership countries that have an association and free trade agreement with the EU, in particular for Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. The new initiative is called "Trio Strategy 2030".
The relevant document was presented by the Chairman of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, Andrew Kubilius at the discussion "Our Strategy for the Future of the Eastern Partnership". The event was held in Brussels on November 12 and was attended by the members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Union and representatives of partner countries.
"The trio's European process should be designed for the next 10 years to support countries that have developed relations with the EU in the format of association and deep and comprehensive free trade (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova)," the strategy statement reads.
Under the initiative, the 3 associate members of the Eastern Partnership must maintain the momentum for reforms for the next 10 years and the EU must create new long-term instruments. The authors of the strategy also point out that the success of the reforms in the 3 countries associated with the European Union should stimulate the other 3 members of the Eastern Partnership - Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus to choose a more ambitious path to European integration.
“Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova should adopt some additional mechanisms from the European Union,” said Andrew Kubilius, Chairman of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and one of the initiators of the EU-drafted initiative to propose 10-year European integration plan for these 3 counties, at a European Parliament event on the future of the Eastern Partnership.
In his speech, he called on the audience to remember the experience of the Baltic States and Poland, since the promise of EU enlargement in the ’90s and their accession to the union was crucial for them to maintain the path of reforms that were painful sometimes. He also underlined the achievements of Eastern Partnership policy in the “3 most advanced countries” after its establishment, “but of course, we have to think about how things will go, because much more needs to be done, especially given the goals and objectives of these countries,” - Kubilius said.
He said it was a very important issue for the EU to do its part to help these countries maintain their motivation for reforms and stressed out 3 main points, first being “more for more” principle, that should be more realistic and practical – “it should be something of an embodiment of Eastern Partnership policy architecture. Our offer is an addition to the Eastern Partnership policy and is called the Trio Strategy 2030. The trio needs to get some additional tools from the EU. It is clear that we can no longer continue to act as before,” said Kubilius.
His 2nd point is similar to the Western Balkans process: “EU Strategy on the Western Balkans encompasses the “Berlin process”, which is a coalition of countries within the EU that actively promotes the Western Balkans' integration process.”
And as for the last topic, he proposed practical tools, that can be used to develop EP agenda, including communications investment platform, deactivation of roaming, etc.
European Commission spokesman Christian Danielsson said that the new composition of the European Commission's approach to the Eastern Partnership is already visible. He assessed the letter as clear and ambitious: “It emphasizes the importance of addressing unresolved issues such as the rule of law, the judiciary, the fight against corruption and crime, and most importantly, the Commissioner should work to accelerate the implementation of deep and comprehensive agreements with Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.”
According to him, the European Commission, for its part, agrees with the principle of a differentiated approach to find ways forward and work with the trio, saying that a certain level of differentiation has already been reached, which was the main principle of neighborhood policy review in 2015. He said there are 3 issues, where distinction occurs: association and deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, visa-free regime and increased political dialogues at the multilateral and bilateral levels.
Gigi Tsereteli, a member of the European Parliament noted that the initiative of the Friends of Georgia is to create a 10-year program of more active integration. He also expressed hope for other parties to join the initiative as well.
“Perhaps the Georgian side should present its views here. Most importantly, if it is made up, it will be a good tool for us to accelerate Georgia's real, faster process of European integration,” said Tsereteli.
He said that Georgia should pay close attention to domestic political issues, consolidation of democracy and elections in order not to lose the support.
