Kaliningrad Regional Duma and German Landtag to Integrate Regional Laws

Questions concerning legislation in the Kaliningrad Region in the context of EU expansion will be discussed at a meeting today of regional deputies with Gudrin Schmidt-Kerner, a landtag representative of the Schleswig-Holstein land. In particular they will discuss cooperation between the landtag and the regional Duma committee on analysis of EU standards.

As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, Chairman of the Committee on Analysis of EU Standards Vladimir Yezhikov believes that Kaliningrad is expecting support from the German landtag to organise and hold a conference in Kaliningrad to create an advisory committee. 'We would like to see representatives of Poland, Lithuania, Germany and the Kaliningrad regional Duma on this committee,' said Mr Yezhikov. 'The advisory committee could become an international body for discussing the region's integration into the EU on the basis of the experience of other countries who have followed this path such as Poland and Lithuania.'

Mr Yezhikov said that such a committee could help the regional committee on EU standards to prepare federal projects in the areas of ecology, social standards and tourism which would comply with their EU equivalents. This would also enable the Kaliningrad Region to bring Russia a little closer to Europe.

An agreement of cooperation was signed between the Kaliningrad regional Duma and the Schleswig-Holstein landtag in January 2000.