Meetings and Discussions

   

Round-Table “South Caucasus in a Changing Europe”

On July 2, 2004 the second plenary meeting of the South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative launched in Sofia, Bulgaria. The meeting was organized under the auspices of OSCE Bulgarian Presidency and with the support of the London Information Network on Conflicts and State-Building. The participants included the parliamentarians from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the framework of the assembly, the round-table discussion was organized on the topic of South Caucasus in a changing Europe.

The round-table included experts and scholars from the countries of South Caucasus, as well as academics from the host country Bulgaria. The aim of the meeting was to exchange expert opinions on the problems facing the countries of South Caucasus. The participants paid particular attention to the prospects of EU integration that had become a widely discussed issue after the inclusion of these counties into the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP).

One of the speakers, Dr. Archil Gegeshidze delivered a lecture  “EU-South Caucasus: Pros and Cons of a Regional Approach”. He reviewed the factors that hinder the regions rapprochement to Europe and discussed the new trends that will possibly speed up integration process. He emphasized the importance of accelerating democratic reforms in the region, the urgency of conflict resolution and of the withdrawal of Russian military bases. During his speech, the audience expressed further interest in the assets and liabilities of individual, asymmetric and joint forms of integration into EU, possibilities of its accomplishment and positive and negative sides of EU integration in terms of its political implications.