Brussels, 04/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in Amsterdam on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February, the EU foreign affairs ministers will discuss the EU's relationship with Iran and the migration crisis. They will also take part in a crisis simulation exercise.
The ministers will begin their meeting with a working lunch, attended also by their counterparts for defence (who will be closing their informal meeting), in order to discuss ongoing work on the comprehensive strategy on foreign and security policy. High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini is expected to present this strategy in June. “Given challenges like migration, terrorism and the arc of instability around Europe, the EU and the member states must devise an ambitious yet realistic strategy for foreign and security policy. To do so, we need each other”, Dutch foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders stated in a press release.
During the afternoon, the foreign ministers will discuss relations between the EU and Iran following implementation of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. They will particularly focus on how to structure the EU's gradual engagement in its relations with Tehran. An EU delegation is expected to travel there in the spring. At the joint initiative of Mogherini and Koenders, the ministers will also take part in a crisis simulation exercise. They will use a fictional scenario to discuss what they would do if confronted with an external threat. “The aim is to take the opportunity of an informal meeting away from the pressure of current events to examine the options in the event of a crisis”, the Dutch Presidency states.
On Saturday morning, the ministers will be joined by their counterparts from the candidate countries - Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey - to discuss the problems, stakes and possible solutions to the migration crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)