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The European parliament approved the establishment of new offices in Moldova and Albania on Monday, 10 March, in an attempt to boost its presence in Eastern Europe.
The European Parliament approved the establishment of new liaison offices in Moldova and Albania on Monday (10 March), amid concerns that the war in Ukraine is weakening the EU’s links to Eastern Europe, according to a document obtained by Euronews and sources familiar with the matter.The bureau, which is an administrative body of the European Parliament “took note of the fact that, due to the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, it proved difficult to cover Moldova and the other countries of the Eastern Partnership from the antenna office to be established in Kyiv, and that alternative solutions would have to be considered,” the document reads.The establishment of new offices follows a general reform of the Parliament’s “Directorate General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships”, which already approved the establishment of a new office in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.A source familiar with the matter told Euronews that Kyiv’s office is expected to be inaugurated this spring.The European Parliament has liaison offices across the EU, and a few in non-EU countries for strategic purposes.For example, the European Parliament has “three operational antenna offices located in New York for relations with the United Nations, in Jakarta for relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in Addis Ababa for relations with the African Union,” the document reads, with a new office in Panama to manage Latin America relations also underway.The new antenna offices in Chisinau and Tirana aim to boost EU relations by supporting local Parliaments, civil society, and the EU accession process, while increasing visibility of Parliament’s activities and positions, particularly on EU enlargement, the document reads.The Parliament has no direct competence over foreign affairs issues, which mainly reside in the hands of the Commission and the Council. However, these new offices will have as a major aim to put the institution closer to the enlargement processes, the source familiar with the matter told Euronews.The EU as a whole has offices in many countries worldwide, under the management of the European Union External Action Services (EEAS), which remains the main EU voice outside the bloc.
