The Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the European Union will meet on Wednesday 22 April, by videoconference, for a more traditional Council than the two previous ones.
Thus, while the meetings of 23 March (see EUROPE 12452/8) and 3 April (see EUROPE 12461/4) were devoted to COVID-19, this Council will focus on “foreign policy priorities”, explained a senior diplomat on Monday 20 April.
Libya. Ministers are expected to return to the situation in Libya, where fighting continues despite the UN Secretary General’s call for a ceasefire relayed by the Europeans (see EUROPE 12457/23). The EU Council could discuss the follow-up to the Berlin Conference and how to achieve a ceasefire that could lead to peace negotiations. The plight of migrants trapped in the country, when the first cases of people infected by COVID-19 were announced, should be discussed, as should the implementation of naval operation Irini, for which technical preparations are continuing.
Afghanistan. The ministers will then try to agree on political guidelines for the EU strategy for the country. “We are in a complex and difficult political and military stalemate” in Afghanistan, the senior diplomat summarised. While an agreement has been reached between the United States and the Taliban, it has yet to be put in place, and negotiations between the Taliban and the government have not yet begun. The senior official reiterated that the country was of primary importance for the EU. Afghan nationals are the first nationality blocked on the border between Turkey and the EU, the country is the world’s largest opium producer and the Islamic State is trying to reconstitute itself there. “We have to participate and be heard”, the senior official explained, adding that it was necessary to see how to preserve what the EU has done in the country in recent years.
Turkey. The EU Council will also return to relations with Turkey on migration, a few weeks after the tensions on the Turkish-Greek border, to the foreign policy issues in which that country is involved (Syria, Libya) and to its illegal drilling in the Mediterranean. Speaking before the European Parliament on Monday, the EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that work on the assessment of the EU-Turkey declaration was “far from being finalised”. According to the senior official heard by EUROPE, the aim is to obtain political guidance from the Member States.
Ukraine. Finally, Ministers will discuss the situation in the Eastern Partnership countries, both the preparation of the summit scheduled for mid-June and the COVID-19 pandemic. Emphasis will be placed on Ukraine and the situation in the still conflict-ridden east of the country and its progress in reform (see EUROPE 12461/43). Ahead of this Tuesday’s meeting, several ministers will meet by videoconference with their Ukrainian counterpart, Kuleba Dmytro, at the initiative of Denmark. Over the last few days, Mr Borrell, for his part, has spoken with Mr Dmytro and with the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
The repatriation of European citizens is coming to an end. After having mobilised the attention of Ministers at previous videoconferences (see EUROPE 12452/8, 12461/4), this issue is now practically resolved. Of the 600,000 travellers who were stranded abroad at the beginning of the epidemic due to flight restrictions caused by the coronavirus, just under 100,000 remain to be brought home (see EUROPE 12469/15). On Monday, the High Representative hoped that all repatriations could take place before the end of next week. “It was an historic consular coordination effort. We are now focusing on difficult and remote areas to find flying capabilities”, a senior official said on Monday. On his blog on Sunday, Mr Borrell wrote about “largest ever repatriation operation, bringing over half a million stranded Europeans back home”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Aminata Niang)