Senate Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev meets EU Special Representative Eamon Gilmore

The Speaker of the Senate of the Parlament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Maulen Ashimbayev met with the EU Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore, and the EU Special Representative for Central Asia, Terhi Hakala.

Maulen Ashimbayev noted that Kazakhstan attaches great importance to building mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation with the EU member-states and institutions. In this vein, the Senate assigns a special role to the further development of inter-parliamentary cooperation.

The interlocutors noted the need to further strengthen the dialogue platforms to exchange relevant information. The priority topics include expanding bilateral trade and investment, exchanging views on regional security, promoting democratic values, as well as political reforms carried out at the initiative of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

"The Head of State signed a decree on measures to implement the Address to the people of Kazakhstan, "The unity of the people and systemic reforms are a solid foundation for the country's prosperity." The block of political modernization and protection of human rights is well-presented. In particular, as part of the continuation of the course of political modernization, it is planned to adopt a number of laws. We will develop the legislative amendments necessary for conducting pilot direct elections of rural and district akims. It is also planned to make the quotas a compulsory norm when distributing mandates to elected representatives, and expand the list of categories of candidates from women and youth to candidates with disabilities,” said the Speaker of the Senate.

The main topic of the meeting was the political reforms carried out in Kazakhstan as a guarantee of enhancing the efficiency of the state, transparency, and competitiveness of the political process.