A delegation of the European Movement International (EMI) led by Pat Cox, EMI President, met with civil society, stakeholders and political representatives on 24-25 February 2011 in Moscow to further discuss options for increased cooperation with the EMI. Mr Cox was accompanied by Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, EMI Vice-President and Diogo Pinto, EMI Secretary General.
The meeting was the summit of a series of preparatory consultations between the EMI delegation and their Russian hosts, particularly with the European Integration Foundation and its Member the Russian European Club, founded 1999 as parliamentary group in the Russian State Duma. Both entities are devoted to driving forward the strategic cooperation between the European Union and the Russian Federation, especially in the light of the EU-Russia partnership for modernisation launched in June 2010.
As a result of the aforementioned preparatory consultations and concluding this final mission, the network of the European Integration Foundation, represented by its Chairman and Member of the State Duma Andrey Klimov, submitted to the EMI Board its application for the establishment of a National Council of the European Movement in Russia. The EMI Board will review the application in due time and put its final recommendation to vote at the EMI Federal Assembly later this year in Poland, Warsaw.
As part of the visit, EMI President Pat Cox and EMI Vice-President Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb were awarded the commemorative medal of the European Club by its President Konstantin Kosachev and subsequently became honorary club members.