MONGOLIA-EUROPE PARLIAMENTARY MEETING HELD

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Members of the European Parliament (EP) highly spoke Mongolia's developing of the democracy in its region during the 9th Mongolia-EP meeting. It ran February 19-20 in Brussels, Belgium. Among the gathered for the meeting were D.Khayankhyarvaa and Ts.Oyunbaatar MP and the representation of the EP such as Mr Paolo Bartolozzi, chairman of the EP's group of Central Asian and Mongolian Affairs. The Mongolian parliamentarians spoke in detail about the present socio-economic situation in Mongolia and exchanged views on the democracy, human rights, society and environment. The sides mutually underlined a significance of signing a partnership and cooperation agreement which is to be established soon between Mongolia and the European Union (EU). Moreover, they reported that the EU Commission President Mr Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Mongolia this March, and that High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and First Vice President of the EC Ms Catherine Ashton will visit in April. These visits will expand and strengthen the Mongolia-EU relations,the sides noted. The EP decided to give a support to Mongolia in gaining the EU "market economy" status and in getting involved in the General scheme of tariff preferences for good-governance and sustainable development from January 1, 2014 pursuant to the newest rule. On the meeting's second day, a Vice President of the EP Mr Georgios Papastamkos received the Mongolian delegation and promised to focus his attention on eliminating Mongolia from the list of "Non-Market Economy" countries. B.Khuder