NEWS

Commissioner sets out vision for Georgia and other Eastern Partners

12-07-2012

Georgia’s transformation in recent years has set an important example, said Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Commissioner Štefan Füle yesterday, addressing participants of the conference titled The EU and its European Neighbours in Batumi, Georgia.  Since its launch three years, the Eastern Partnership is underpinned by “a shared vision” and “a shared set of core values,” the Commissioner stressed, but the EU and its partners need to review regularly the progress and to keep going in the right direction.
For the EU, the right direction means:
  • holding on to a core set of values to ensure sustainability and predictability, based on simple principles which all citizens can relate to;
  • sharing the benefits of growth and development as widely as possible, especially to those who suffer poverty and social exclusion;
  • testing progress at the polls – where better to judge the job you have done?
  • “keeping it real” – by which I mean continuously translating our vision into measurable short and medium-term goals;
  •  working tirelessly to achieve and maintain stability and security;
  • building institutions and a legal framework which inspire trust across the political spectrum. 
The EU and its partners have the necessary policy framework and the tools to keep up the momentum, Štefan Füle emphasized, citing the partnership agenda endorsed by the Prague and Warsaw Eastern Partnership Summits, as well as the Roadmap of the Eastern Partnership and the new Association Agendas respectively.
Füle also mentioned an important innovation, informal Eastern Partnership dialogues on issues of common interest, and stressed that keeping people informed was crucial for the partnership. 
He said “platforms like the Civil Society Forum foster the democratic values on which the Eastern Partnership is based and they also raise the visibility of our Partnership in your countries,” adding: “We should work hard on building a monitoring and evaluation culture in the Eastern Partnership.”
The Commissioner said the “more for more” principle, agreed at the Warsaw Summit, would be substantiated by the allocations of additional funds under the Eastern Partnership Integration and Cooperation Programme (known as EAPIC).
In particular, Georgia will receive additional assistance under EAPIC, to the tune of €22 million, to reform its criminal justice sector, with a special focus on human rights, as well as to improve border and migration management.
For each partner country in the region the EU has specific priorities – in the case of Georgia, October’s elections will obviously be critical, the Commissioner said.
Touching upon the issue of political stability in the region, Füle said there was no alternative to peaceful dispute resolution, and to reconciliation. “This applies to all three countries of the Region, and in the specific case of Georgia it means, of course, constructive engagement in the Geneva international discussions and a sustained effort to improve the conditions of internally displaced persons,” the Commissioner said.  
All three South Caucasus countries have the chance to decide how they wish to engage with the EU in the short, medium and long term, the Commissioner said, adding: “Our next rendez-vous will be at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius. I want to achieve a lot by then!”  (EU Neighbourhood Info)
Read more
 
Speech
 
EU Delegation to Georgia
 
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre webpage - Georgia
 
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre webpage - Armenia
 
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre webpage - Azerbaijan
 
 
 

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