Irakli Petriashvili (President of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation and Pan-European Regional Council) chaired 19^th  Executive Committee meeting  of the Pan-European Regional Council in Brussels.

At the meeting Irakli Petriashvili highlighted several  important issues, among which was granting of EU candidate status to Georgia.

The President of the Pan-European Regional Council once again called on the members of the Executive Committee for their support and noted that the granting of  candidate status to Georgia did not correspond  to the interests of the European People’s  Party (EPP)   and political partners in our and other countries, which led to the current result.

Irakli Petriashvili called on the trade unions of EU member states to actively cooperate with parties and partners so that the achievement  do not be consider for narrow party interests that Georgia brings to democracy and security in the world.

At the meeting, the members of the Executive Committee discussed the issue of the congress of trade unions to be held in Australia in November, where the president of the Pan-European Regional Council, Irakli Petriashvili, expressed his open support to the General Secretary of European Trade Unions, Luka Visentini.

“I am sure that Luka Visentini will handle the mentioned position well, because he has the communication skills characteristic of a leader, he is competent and principled. Also, he is well aware of the problems in the region and the ways to solve them,” Petriashvili said

During the session,  Irakli Petriashvili,  also spoke about the current events in Ukraine and the initiative to provide Ukrainian children in Georgia with school books. As a result of the war situation in Ukraine, about 3000 children were left without school books. Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, with the involvement of Europe and other interested parties, found a way for each of them to be able to study smoothly, and the obstacles caused by bureaucracy and other factors in Ukraine cannot force children to remain without education.

The president of “PERC” also touched on the current events in Belarus. So far, a member of the Executive Committee and the leader of the Belarusian Trade Unions are in captivity along with about 30 other Trade Union leaders. Irakli Petriashvili called on the members of the Executive Committee to make maximum efforts and use all platforms to free the Trade Union colleagues from the captivity of President Lukashenko.

In addition, at the meeting, the committee members discussed such important issues as:

• the 2023 work plan of the Pan-European Regional Council;
• Labour Safety campaign;
• Energy, Economy and Social Crisis/Peace;
• Financial, Women and Youth Committee reports;
• Conference results;
• Ongoing Trade Union processes in Kazakhstan, etc.