Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Foreign Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union and the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy “Parliaments for democracy: towards more ambitious global cooperation”

The Eastern Partnership issues, democratic development and lessons learned to be discussed at the parliamentary dimension event of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. On 27–28 November 2013, the Seimas will host the Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Foreign Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union and the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy entitled “Parliaments for democracy: towards more ambitious global cooperation” (hereinafter referred to as the Meeting). The Meeting will be attended by parliamentary representatives from EU Member States, candidate countries, the European Parliament, representatives from the Eastern Partnership countries and members of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy. Chairpersons of the Committees on Foreign Affairs from EU Eastern Partnership countries and distinguished European and global human rights’ advocates will deliver their speeches and take part in the debate. The state of play of the EU Eastern Partnership on the eve of the Vilnius Summit and lessons learned from democracies in transition will be among the topics of the Meeting.

Linas Antanas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania; Elmar Brok, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament; and Igor Corman, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, will give presentations on the Eastern Partnership and take part in the debate. In their speeches and contributions to the debate, the Chairpersons of the Committees on Foreign Affairs from the EU Eastern Partnership countries will express the position of their countries. An entire session will be dedicated to discuss the case of Ukraine. Insights on the topic will be provided by Pat Cox, Member of the European Parliament monitoring mission to Ukraine and former President of the European Parliament; Vitali Klitschko, Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; and Borys Tarasyuk, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

More on website http://www.lrs.lt/intl/presidency.show?theme=288&lang=2&p_eventguid=ae20d251-1f88-4bd3-8de2-bc31dfb60985