”I welcome today’s decision of the European Parliaments executive body to give a green light to the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly. We can now progress within the Eastern Partnership by launching its parliamentary assembly as the agreement was found on the suspension of Belarus from the Assembly until the undemocratic development in the country has been reversed” comments Gunnar Hökmark MEP, Vice Chairman of the EPP Group and spokesman on the eastern partnership, today’s decision by the Conference of Presidents to proceed towards a constituent Assembly this spring.
This is an important step forward for the European Union and five of its eastern neighbours; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The constituent meeting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly will now be held before Eastern Partnership Summit in May.
”It is obviously a great pain that the development in Belarus has turned to the worse and we all long for democratic progress. The European Parliament however maintains the open door policy as the participation of the members of the Belarusian parliament remains conditioned upon the show of real democratic progress and respect for human rights and the rule of law.”
For further information:
Gunnar Hökmark MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845822
Per Heister, EPP Group Press & Communications Service, Tel: +32-496-645530
Marek Hannibal, EPP Group Press & Communications Service, Tel: +32-475-753048
Notes to Editors:
The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 265 Members.