The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the draft Council and Commission decision (12183/1/2011),

–  having regard to the draft Partnership and Cooperation Agreement establishing a partnership between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Turkmenistan, of the other part (12288/2011),

–  having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Articles 91, 100(2), 207, 209 and 218(6)(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 101 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (C8-0059/2015),

–  having regard to its previous resolutions on the region of Central Asia, in particular those of 20 February 2008 on an EU Strategy for Central Asia(1), of 15 December 2011 on the state of implementation of the EU Strategy for Central Asia(2), of 13 April 2016 on implementation and review of the EU-Central Asia Strategy(3), of 22 April 2009 on the Interim Trade Agreement with Turkmenistan(4), and of 14 February 2006 on the human rights and democracy clause in European Union agreements(5),

–  having regard to the 1999 Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters between the European Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and Turkmenistan, of the other part, concluded by the Council on 27 July 2009 (5144/1999), and to the regular meetings of the Joint Committee established thereunder,

–  having regard to the Memorandum of Understanding on Energy signed between the European Union and Turkmenistan in May 2008,

–  having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Turkmenistan is a party,

–  having regard to the annual EU-Turkmenistan Human Rights Dialogue,

–  having regard to the commitment made by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) in her letter to the Committee on Foreign Affairs on 16 December 2015, containing the aspects mentioned in paragraph 3 herein,

–  having regard to the letter by the VP/HR to the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 5 July 2018 noting her support for the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Turkmenistan,

–  having regard to Rule 99(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the interim report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (A8-0072/2019),

A.  whereas Central Asia is a region in which the European Union is increasingly engaged;

B.  whereas a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Turkmenistan was initialled in 1997 and signed in 1998; whereas 14 Member States of the 15 original signatories have since ratified the PCA (the United Kingdom being the last remaining one); whereas Turkmenistan ratified the PCA in 2004; whereas accession to the PCA by those Member States that acceded to the EU after the agreement had been signed is subject to a separate protocol and ratification procedure;

C.  whereas once fully ratified, the PCA would be concluded for an initial period of 10 years, and then renewed annually, enabling the EU to resile from the agreement should serious doubts arise concerning respect for human rights or other serious infringements; whereas the parties may amend the PCA in order to take account of new developments;

D.  whereas the European Parliament was consulted on the Interim Trade Agreement (ITA) with Turkmenistan by the Council in April 2009, as part of an optional, legally non-binding procedure;

E.  whereas the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have set their benchmarks against which progress in Turkmenistan should be measured and the criteria authorising the pursuit of further cooperation, in compliance with internationally recognised standards on the rule of law, good governance and human rights;

F.  whereas respect for democracy and fundamental and human rights, and for the principles of a market economy, which constitute essential elements of the ITA (as set out in both Article 1 therein and Article 2 of the PCA), should remain long-term goals for Turkmenistan; whereas the unilateral suspension of application is a possibility in the event that either party were to violate these elements;

G.  whereas following considerations of the draft recommendation to give Parliament’s consent to conclusion of the PCA, and of its accompanying draft report of 8 May 2015 containing a motion for a resolution, the Committee on Foreign Affairs decided to temporarily suspend the procedure on 24 May 2016 until it deemed that sufficient progress had been made as regards respect for human rights and the rule of law, and decided to open the current interim procedure;

H.  whereas the continued validity of the benchmarks for human rights progress for Turkmenistan, as articulated by Parliament in its previous resolutions, is of vital importance for a principled and coherent EU policy for relations with the country;

I.  whereas Turkmenistan adopted a National Action Plan on Human Rights for 2016-2020 (NAPHR) in 2015, prepared with the assistance of the UN Development Programme in 2013;

J.  whereas Turkmenistan has concluded international agreements, such as the ICCPR, the ICESCR and ILO Conventions;

1.  Asks the Council, the Commission and the VP/HR to set, as a matter of urgency, the following short-term benchmarks to measure sustainable progress by the state authorities of Turkmenistan, based on recommendations by the UN, the OSCE and the EBRD, and before it has given its consent to the PCA:

2.  Asks the Council, the Commission and the VP/HR to take into account the following long-term recommendations for sustainable and credible progress:

3.  Underlines the need for the European Parliament to closely follow and monitor developments in Turkmenistan and the implementation of all parts of the PCA, once it enters into force; calls on the VP/HR, in this context, to implement and publicly commit to the human rights monitoring mechanism, allowing Parliament to be properly informed by the European External Action Service (EEAS) about the implementation of the PCA, once it enters into force, and, in particular, of its objectives and of compliance with Article 2, so that it can respond to developments on the ground in the event of documented and proven serious breaches of human rights; highlights the possibility of a mechanism to suspend the PCA should such cases occur and welcomes, in this respect, the VP/HR’s letter to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 16 December 2015, containing the following objectives:

4.  Welcomes the VP/HR’s announcement from November 2018 regarding the setting up of a fully-fledged EU Delegation in Ashgabat; emphasises that the new Delegation should develop a mutually beneficial cooperation strategy tailored to Turkmenistan’s development conditions and requirements, should monitor the situation in the country, including human rights violations and individual cases of concern, should enter into a dialogue with the country’s various political, social and economic players, should enable diplomacy on the ground, and should improve the management and oversight of projects funded by EU external financing instruments;

5.  Concludes that it will consider giving its consent once it deems that the recommendations set out in paragraphs 1 and 3 have been duly addressed by the Commission, the Council, the VP/HR and the state authorities of Turkmenistan;

6.  Instructs its President to request that the Council, the Commission and the VP/HR regularly provide Parliament with substantial information on the situation in Turkmenistan;

7.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the VP/HR and the Government and Parliament of Turkmenistan.

(1) OJ C 184 E, 6.8.2009, p. 49. (2) OJ C 168 E, 14.6.2013, p. 91. (3) OJ C 58, 15.2.2018, p. 119. (4) OJ C 184 E, 8.7.2010, p. 20. (5) OJ C 290 E, 29.11.2006, p. 107.