European Parliamentarians to visit the East

A European Parliamentary delegation will visit Sri Lanka between July 20 and 26 for a visit to the Eastern Province. They will meet with the Eastern Provincial Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan and discuss the political transformation taking place there.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the European Union Ravinath Aryasinghe, in a release issued from Brussels, while welcoming the visit of this delegation said that this would be the first official contact between the EU and the new provincial administration. Last month a delegation from European Commission avoided a meeting with the Chief Minister.

The delegation will be headed by its Chairman Robert Evans and will include a cross section of political groups and member states represented within the EU

The visiting group will also meet leaders of political parties and key members of the Cabinet, civil society groups and media, according to Aryasinghe.

Ambassador Aryasinghe in his address to the EU Parliamentary delegation for Relations with South Asian countries on Wednesday in Brussels said the delegation would be able to see for themselves the development in the East since restoration of normalcy in the area.

He also said that several in the delegation had visited the country in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami.