A seven-member delegation from the European Parliament is visiting Tbilisi on November 2-4 for an inaugural meeting of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee.

The committee, which is envisaged by the EU-Georgia Association Agreement signed in 2014, is designed as a political body to provide scrutiny of implementation of the agreement, which also includes treaty on free and comprehensive free trade. The Parliamentary Association Committee may make recommendations to the Association Council, a body made up of members from the executive branches of the EU and Georgia.

The European Parliament delegation, led by MEP from the UK Sajjad Karim of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), also includes MEP from Finland Heidi Hautala of Greens/EFA group;  Latvian MEP Andrejs Mamikins from the group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D); MEPs Lithuanian MEP Valentinas Mazuronis from the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE); MEP from the UK Claire Moody from S&D group, and Polish MEPs Agnieszka Kozlowska-Rajewicz and Kosma Zlotowski from the European People’s Party and ECR groups, respectively.

The EU-Georgia Association Committee is expected to discuss implementation of the Association Agreement and “the progress made in visa liberalisation process.”

“MEPs are also expected to discuss, with both their counterparts and the Georgian authorities, the steps taken to entrench modernisation and sustainable democratic reforms in the country, in order to maintain Georgia’s democratic momentum. The current situation in the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will also be under scrutiny, with EUMM field trip to the ABL [Administrative Boundary Line] being part of the programme,” reads a press release distributed by the EU delegation in Tbilisi.

MEPs are also expected to meet President Giorgi Margvelashvili; Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani; Deputy Foreign Minister Gigi Gigiadze, and Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili.