The constituent meeting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly takes place on Tuesday 3 May 2011

The constituent meeting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly takes place on Tuesday 3 May 2011 in Brussels (Hemicycle).

Documents:

• Poster (571 Kb, Apr 29, 2011)  
• Agenda (82 Kb, Apr 28, 2011)  
• Draft programme (138 Kb, Apr 28, 2011)  
• List of participants PARTNERS (74 Kb, May 2, 2011)  
• EPDelegation (63 Kb, Apr 29, 2011)

What is Euronest 

The Neighbourhood Policy of the European Union, including both Eastern and Southern neighbours, was launched in 2003-04 by the Commission, at the time of the largest enlargement ever achieved by the Union since its origins.
 
The Polish and Swedish Governments played an active role for the development of the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy dimension (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine).
 
The first idea of creating an inter-parliamentary forum EU-Neighbourhood East on the model of the Parliamentary Assemblies Union for Mediterranean or Eurolat , which would promote multilateral parliamentary dialogue among all partners and the European Parliament favouring people-to-people contacts, exchanges on EU values, on the functioning of democracy and on other subjects at the heart of actuality: energy, environment, public health, fight against crime and terrorism etc, was already launched in 2006 in the European Parliament.
 
 In its resolution of 15 November 2007 on "Strengthening the EU Neighbourhood Policy", the European Parliament endorsed this idea and, on 4-5 June 2008, organised a Parliamentary Conference ENP-EAST, inviting representatives of the six Eastern Neighbourhood countries. Belarus was represented by extra-parliamentary representatives of the opposition. The final statement of the Conference, adopted by all participants, called "upon the European Parliament and the national parliaments represented at the Conference to examine the issue of setting up an EU-Neighbourhood-East Parliamentary Assembly, where the EP and participating parliaments could provide appropriate mutual assistance for closer integration with the EU".
 
The Presidency conclusions of the European Council of 19/20 June 2008 endorsed the proposals for developing the Eastern Dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy, inviting the Commission to take the project forward and to present to the Council in spring 2009 a proposal on the "Eastern Partnership".
 
At the Prague Eastern Partnership Summit of 7 May 2009, the Heads of State or Government of the Eastern European Partners, the representatives of the European Union and the Heads of State or Government of its Member States agreed to raise the level of their relationship by establishing the Eastern Partnership. They invited the parliamentarians from the European Union and the partner countries to come forward with ideas regarding the European Parliament’s proposal to establish an EU-Neighbourhood East Parliamentary Assembly (EURO-NEST PA).
 
As from the autumn of 2009, the EP Delegation to the Euronest PA was constituted and, gradually, the pace and substance of meetings with homologues from the Eastern Partners increased in importance. After intensive discussions on the modalities of participation of Belarus and on the Rules of Procedure, the Assembly is now scheduled to be constituted on 3 May 2011 in Brussels and should be ready to start working as of autumn 2011.
 
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly will consist of two components:
- the European Parliament delegation (60 Members);
- the Eastern European Partners' delegations (10 Members each, whereas Belarus will not take part, for the time being , in the Assembly's activities, due to political reasons, but with all Partners' understanding that its Members will be welcomed as soon as possible, provided the membership political requirements will have been fulfilled).
 
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly includes the plenary, four standing committees
(Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy; Committee on Economic Integration, Legal Approximation and Convergence with EU Policies;
Committee on Energy Security; Committee on Social Affairs, Education,              
Culture and Civil Society) and two working groups (one on Belarus and one on the Rules).
 
The EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly shall be the parliamentary forum promoting the necessary conditions to accelerate political association and further economic integration between the European Union and the Eastern European Partners, without pre-judging the individual aspirations or integration agendas of any Partner. It shall contribute to the strengthening, development and visibility of the Eastern Partnership, as the institution responsible for parliamentary consultation, supervision and monitoring of the Partnership.
 
Euronest shall meet, in principle, once a year, alternately in an Eastern European Partner country and on the premises of the European Parliament in one of its places of work (Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg).

EURONEST - European Parliament