Euronest Parliamentary Assembly

Euronest Parliamentary Assembly
     European Union member states     Non-EU members     Suspended members
Formation 2011
Type Economic and political cooperation organization
Location
Membership
5 plus 28 European Parliament members
Website
www.euronest.europarl.europa.eu/euronest/

The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary forum in which members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia[1] participate and forge closer political and economic ties with the European Union.[2][3] It was established in 2011 by the European Commission as a component of the Eastern Partnership. After the elections in Belarus in 2010 were declared as flawed by the OSCE, the membership of Belarus in Euronest was automatically suspended. Belarus is welcome to re-join the Assembly once political requirements have been fulfilled.[4] In 2015, Azerbaijan's membership was suspended due to the European Union's criticism of human rights abuses by the government. In September 2016, it was announced that Azerbaijan would take the necessary steps towards restoring ties.[5] As of 2017, the combined population of Euronest members (excluding Belarus and European Parliament members) stands at 61, 927, 521 people.

Member States

In addition to the 28 member states of the European Parliament, 4 Eastern European states participate:

Suspended Members

Plenary Meetings

The Euronest PA meets once a year, alternately in an Eastern European Partner country and in one of the European Parliament places of work (Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg):

EU Integration

Members of Euronest have been regarded as belonging to the "European family". All members are part of the European Neighbourhood Policy and each maintain various degrees of integration with the EU. Some members of Euronest such as Ukraine and Georgia (country) are actively seeking eventual EU membership and wish to forge closer ties with the EU. Other states such as Armenia and Moldova cooperate with both the European Union and the Russian-led Eurasian Union. While Azerbaijan and Belarus have been questioned about their European perspectives due to human rights abuses and lack of freedom of speech.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Members". EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly
  2. ↑ "Initial Agreement Reached To Establish Parliamentary Assembly Of European Parliament's Eastern Neighbors". Archived from the original on 2011-06-15.
  3. ↑ European Parliament decision of 6 May 2009 on the number of interparliamentary delegations, delegations to joint parliamentary committees, delegations to parliamentary cooperation committees and multilateral Parliamentary Assemblies
  4. ↑ "Initial Agreement Reached To Establish Parliamentary Assembly Of European Parliament's Eastern Neighbors".
  5. ↑ "EU Azer".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.