Brussels, 20/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Eastern Partnership ministerial meeting will take place in Brussels on Monday 23 July. The meeting will be attended by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle, European foreign ministers and their Armenian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Moldovan and Belarusian counterparts and the Azeri deputy minister. Even though European sanctions are in place against Belarus and the crackdown on the opposition continues, the European ministers wanted Belarusian Minister Sergei Martinov to attend. “The decision to invite the Belarusian foreign minister was taken by the member states as a whole, believing that this would be an opportunity to deliver EU messages”, said a high ranking European official. Martinov confirmed on Thursday 19 that he would attend the Brussels meeting.
The ministers are expected to approve the Eastern Partnership road map which sets out initiatives to be taken before the next Partnership summit in 2013. They will also discuss how to take forward the Eastern Partnership agenda in the next 18 months, guided by the roadmap; the contribution of civil society to the achievement of Eastern Partnership goals; the contribution of sectoral and multilateral cooperation and prospects for enhanced cooperation in the field of the common security and defence policy (CSDP). (CG/transl.rt)