Inaugural Meeting of the EU Eastern Partnership Assembly (Euronest PA) was held at the European Parliament in Brussels (Kingdom of Belgium) on May 3, 2011. After two years´ preparation, participants of the grand assembly launched the parliamentary component of the Eastern Partnership which unites representatives of the European Parliament, and the parliaments of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Euronest is a parliamentary component of the Eastern Partnership, a new platform and forum for cooperation and implementation of new ideas and projects. For Ukraine, Euronest PA can become an extra tool for strengthening bilateral relations and facilitating lifting of visas in the nearest future. Activity of Euronest PA will foster the dialogue and tackle the issues facing the European Community in general and every partner-state in particular, as well as consolidate the role of Europe as a global player.
During the Inaugural Meeting, the constitutive documents of the new organization were signed, Euronest PA Bureau was appointed, two co-presidents and eight vice-presidents, co-chairmen and deputy co-chairmen of the committees and working groups of the organization were elected.
Borys Tarasiuk, Chairman of the European Integration Committee, Head of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Delegation in the EU Eastern Partnership Assembly (Euronest PA), was unanimously elected Co-President from the Eastern Partnership Countries
It was declared that Ukraine, represented by B.Tarasiuk, Chairman of the European Integration Committee, has contributed to the formation of the Assembly, played a key role in the initiation of this process, and helped settle the issue of a full-fledged participation of the Belarusian delegation.
Kristian Vigenin, Chairman of the European Parliament Delegation, was elected co-president from the EU.
President of the European Parliament, speakers of the parliaments of Armenia and Moldova, first deputy speakers of the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Georgia, heads and members of the national parliamentary delegations and the European Parliament delegation to Euronest PA attended the meeting.
On behalf of Head of the Ukrainian Parliament V.Lytvyn, The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was represented by B.Tarasiuk, Head of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Delegation to Euronest PA, and People´s Deputies of Ukraine A.Boliura, O.Zarubinskyi, R.Zvarych, V.Kravchuk, S.Kurpil, Yu.Kovalevska, V.Lukianov and Yu.Karakai.
On the eve on the Inaugural Meeting on May 2, heads of the delegations held several multilateral meetings within the sitting of the European component to discuss the key issues of constitutive documents. The Parties also discussed participation of the Belarusian parliament in the Assembly. The participants of the meetings demonstrated their intention to seek compromise solutions to launch Euronest PA.
As to the participation of the Belarusian parliamentary delegation in Euronest PA, it was stated that "Belarus holds ten standby places for its full-fledged participation after the discharge of political prisoners arrested after the events of December 19, 2010, and holding of the coming democratic parliamentary elections in the Republic."