EU/Kyrgyzstan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the report by Nacho SÁNCHEZ AMOR (S&D, ES) containing a motion for a non-legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Kyrgyz Republic, of the other part.
Despite the shared interests in strengthening the EU-Kyrgyzstan important political and trade relations, Members are concerned by the deteriorating situation of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Kyrgyzstan, particularly in the context of the completion of negotiations and the signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA).
The report highlighted the importance of Parliament's close involvement in monitoring the implementation of all aspects of the EPCA and called for an effective evaluation by both parties to the agreement, to be conducted within three years, of the implementation of its essential elements, with clear human rights benchmarks and time frames. A negative assessment of the implementation of these essential elements could lead to Article 316 of the EPCA being triggered.
EU-Kyrgyzstan relations
Recalling that Kyrgyzstan is the Union's third largest trading partner in Central Asia, Members reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate with the country and its partners in Central Asia to ensure peace, security, stability, prosperity, democracy and sustainable development.
The report stressed the need to:
- collaborate in promoting green initiatives based on a sustainable market economy, private sector innovation and long-term environmental stewardship, early warning systems for natural disasters, low-carbon development and the transition to renewable energy sources;
- strengthen cooperation on critical raw materials, which have been identified as being of strategic importance;
- strengthen academic, cultural and vocational exchanges;
- ensure the highest possible level of monitoring of the use of Union funds (EUR 98 million for the period 2021-2027);
- strengthen the exchange of information on terrorist threats and redouble efforts to eradicate corruption.
Regional cooperation and global challenges
Members encouraged the EU to strengthen its cooperation with Central Asia on political, economic and security issues, in line with the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law underpinning the EU's external action, stressing that further EU cooperation with Central Asian countries cannot be at the expense of these values. They stressed the need to strengthen dialogue and collaboration on foreign policy and security issues, including cybersecurity, regional stability, crisis management, disarmament and arms control, in line with the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
The report highlighted the growing momentous challenges to multilateralism and the rules-based order faced by the EU and the Kyrgyz Republic. It noted Russia's influence in the region despite Central Asian countries' efforts to diversify their external relations and deplores Kyrgyzstan's failure to condemn Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Human rights, democracy and the rule of law
The report encouraged Kyrgyzstan to:
- adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that includes sexual orientation, gender, disability and ethnicity as protected categories;
- continue efforts to eliminate gender-based and domestic violence;
- ensure that freedom of religion or belief is protected in the country;
- develop a national action plan for human rights with the participation of civil society;
- unconditionally release all imprisoned or wrongly detained journalists, bloggers and activists;
- ensure respect for the principles of free and fair elections by protecting the rights to stand for election and campaign;
- refrain from politically motivated prosecutions against the political opposition and dissenting voices and guarantee the right to peaceful assembly;
- revoke the Russian-style law on ‘foreign representatives’ and respect and protect media freedom and pluralism;
- repeal the ‘false information’ law and the law prohibiting ‘LGBT propaganda’;
- protect journalists and non-governmental organisation workers and activists from intimidation and harassment;
- strengthen the rule of law, the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary in accordance with international standards.
Lastly, the report called on the EEAS and the EU delegation to Kyrgyzstan to conduct active public diplomacy and to address false narratives disseminated by the Kyrgyz authorities, in particular information that distorts the valuesand policies of the Union.