DUSHANBE, February 23, Asia-Plus — The European Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on an EU strategy for Central Asia.
According to the Delegation of the European Commission (EC) to Tajikistan, while the report welcomes the European Union’s (EU) increased focus on Central Asia, of which the adoption of the Central Asia strategy is the clearest expression, it notes, however, the slowness of implementation of the projects for the five countries of the region.
The five countries referred to collectively as Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) lie at a key intersection between Europe and Asia and, historically and traditionally, they have represented an important meeting and transit point between the two continents.
The House is convinced that certain issues can only be dealt with effectively by means of regional approaches leading to regional solutions (e.g. counter-terrorism, the eradication of human trafficking, counter-narcotics, water management) which require enhanced regional cooperation.
Parliament calls on the Council and the Commission to further promote good governance, human rights, democracy and education, including consideration of engagement with all types of religious communities. It calls on both the Council and the Commission to ensure that human rights issues should carry equal weight with the EU”s robust approach to energy, security and trade.
MEPs consider that, when assessing the human rights situation, the EU should pay special attention to the existence – or absence – of a credible commitment on the part of the respective government to improving that situation, focusing on demonstrable progress, the climate for human rights defenders and the level of cooperation with UN special rapporteurs and mechanisms, as well as with other relevant international actors.
The House condemns the persecution of human rights defenders in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan; calls on the Council and the Commission to make every effort to protect their activities and physical integrity, and calls on the relevant governments to immediately release all human rights defenders imprisoned or compulsorily detained in psychiatric hospitals and/or for political reasons.
The European Parliament calls on the Commission and the Council to implement all appropriate measures to encourage deeper integration of Central Asia into the world trade and economic system, in particular through WTO accession for the four countries in the region which are not yet members.
MEPs consider that cooperation on the EU”s external energy policy is of the greatest importance in the context of its Central Asia strategy; supports, therefore, efforts by the European Union to boost gas and oil imports from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and to diversify transit routes. The European Parliament calls for active EU energy cooperation with the region, especially with the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and, if possible, Uzbekistan, in order to address energy problems of particular importance to their huge human and economic development needs, difficult inter-state relations and precarious security of supply.
MEPs believe that further strengthened cooperation between Central Asia and the Black Sea region in the fields of energy and transportation is essential for the accomplishment of the above-mentioned goals of the EU. Parliament takes the view that this should include investing in the development of alternative energy sources, energy efficiency and energy saving, and new infrastructures in the energy sector with modernization of the existing ones. Finally, the European Parliament recognizes the important role of Kazakhstan as a strong economic actor in Central Asia, where the EU is the number one trading partner, and where Kazakhstan pursues a strategy of advanced social, economic and political modernization.
