The European Parliament (EP) passed here on Wednesday a resolution on Georgia, urging Russia to honor its commitments to withdraw its troops from Georgia.
The resolution, adopted with 549 in favor, 68 against and 61 abstentions in a plenary session of the EP, echoed the stance taken by an extraordinary summit of the European Union on Monday to support Georgia and condemn Russia.
It called on Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and to honor all its commitments under the ceasefire agreement.
It condemned Russia for its recognition of the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The resolution supported the EU to send monitoring mission to Georgia and propose visa facilitation and readmission agreements with the former Soviet republic.
It backed the European Council's decision to postpone the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement negotiations until the withdrawal of the Russian troops to their positions prior to 7 August.
In order to facilitate de-mining operations, the members of the parliament called on the Russian and Georgian authorities to provide full information concerning the areas where their armies dropped cluster bombs.
They demanded that an independent international investigation be carried in order to establish the facts and bring greater clarity to certain allegations. The House urges Georgia, which ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, and the Russian authorities to lend support to and fully cooperate with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
MEPs called on the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, to propose visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Georgia at least equivalent to those for Russia.
The European Neighborhood Policy, they said, should be developed and more adapted to "the needs of our eastern partners," including a strengthening of EU involvement in the Black Sea region, according to MEPs.
They backed the proposal to speed up the establishment of a free trade zone with Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.
They also call for a boost to the EU's neighborhood policy and reaffirm the importance of Georgia in improving EU energy security.
They stressed in the resolution the importance of Georgia in improving EU energy security by providing an alternative to the Russian energy transit route.
The joint resolution was drafted by five political party groups in the parliament.
Source:Xinhua
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