EP plenary session: Laima Andrikienė MEP closing speech - Eastern Partnership: November 2017 Summit

EP plenarinė sesija 
Strasbūras
2017 11 14

Thank you Madame President.

First of all, I would like to thank my co-rapporteur Mr. Knut Fleckenstein for your excellent cooperation.

I cordially thank our shadow rapporteurs and all colleagues who contributed to the draft report in order to have well-balanced European Parliament recommendations for the Eastern Partnership Summit.

I also thank the Estonian Presidency of the EU for your commitment and your leadership. I sincerely wish the forthcoming summit to be a success and I hope very much that the Recommendations of the European Parliament will be well reflected in the Final Declaration of the Summit. 

On Belarus:

President Aleksander Lukashenko is invited to the Summit. I hope and I wish he will use this rare opportunity to present and prove his country’s achievements in the process of European integration, in becoming closer with the EU.

Certainly, no one could expect that the EU will stop defending human rights. Equal opportunities, the rule of law, democracy, human dignity are our core values and we will firmly stand behind these values whatever country is concerned.

Strasbourg. 14 11 2017 

EP plenary session: Laima Andrikienė MEP Report - Eastern Partnership: November 2017 Summit.

Eastern Partnership policy is an important and long-lasting policy of the European Union. We want it to be effective and result-driven. 

The Summit in Brussels should be forward looking, injecting new dynamism and providing a clear political vision for the future of our Eastern Partnership. If Brussels Summit will lack all this, if Brussels Summit will be only a stocktaking Summit, if its Final Declaration will lack novelties, then November Summit will demonstrate the inability of the European Union to meet challenges ahead of us and it will be another missed opportunity.

European Parliament is far more ambitious, then, for instance, some EU Member States. We in the Parliament fully acknowledge our responsibility for the consequences of any failure of our Eastern Partnership policy. That is why in our Recommendations we propose very concrete steps to be taken by the European Union in order to guarantee that our Eastern Partnership policy is a success. 

European Parliament is playing its legitimate role, its Recommendations to the Summit should be taken into account and duly reflected in the Final Declaration of the Summit.

Among other important things which are part of EP Recommendations, we propose EaP+ format which includes:

• the establishment of a trust fund;
• New European Investment Plan; 
• financial support mechanism for the implementation of the Association Agreements, etc. 

All these proposals are for the countries which have Association Agreements and Free trade agreements with the EU and enjoy visa-free regime with the EU, namely, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

When the time comes, when the homework is done and necessary requirements fulfilled, potential membership of these countries in the Customs Union, Digital Union, Energy Union should be considered as an option.

Secondly, differentiation is key. As our resources are limited, the principle of “more for more” and “less for less” should be implemented. We should focus our resources much more on those EaP countries who have made remarkable progress on their European path. 

Trust Fund and New European Investment Plan.

In the present geopolitical context and taking into account the geopolitical realities, we should offer to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova - and in our Recommendations we propose that - a New European Plan for these countries, including:

- a new Investment Plan to boost investments and economic development. According to the international experts, a sizeable doubling of the volume of investment, for instance, in Ukraine up to 5 billion EUR annually can result in 6-8 % annual economic growth in the country over the next 5 to 10 years;

- conditionality is in place also. I have in mind structural reforms and creation of investment friendly environment, strengthening of the rule of law and fight against corruption; this absolutely is a must;

- the investment support is dedicated not to the oligarchia, not to benefit the oligarchs; it is dedicated for ordinary people, notably in such fields as energy savings, road infrastructure, jobs, public services, small and medium size businesses, and reconstruction as in the case of Ukraine country is at war.  

I look forward to our debate.

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