The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday 27 May that the EU must be more effective in protecting the stability of its eastern neighbourhood, which is facing several frozen conflicts.
“Ministers had a long discussion, conflict by conflict, and analysed what we can do to achieve a peaceful resolution and strengthen our participation in the OSCE”, the High Representative explained after the informal meeting of European Foreign Ministers (Gymnich) in Lisbon.
Five of the six Eastern Partnership countries are affected by a frozen conflict: Ukraine with Crimea and Donbass, Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Moldova with Transnistria, and Armenia and Azerbaijan with Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Borrell also stressed the need to work more closely with the US and to raise the EU’s profile.
“Also, a group of ministers will visit the three countries of the South Caucasus [Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia] on my behalf to show our readiness to further engage in the region”, the High Representative announced.
On their arrival at the meeting, Estonian Minister Eva-Maria Liimets and her Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu called for greater EU involvement in resolving frozen conflicts. “If the EU wants to be a global player, it must be influential in its own neighbourhood”, said the latter.
Mr Aurescu had a series of actions to propose to his counterparts. In his view, the EU should in particular address the root causes of these conflicts and “take into account that Russia is at the origin of these conflicts and uses them as an instrument to create its own sphere of influence”. The Minister also wanted to explore the possibilities of creating a special EU representative for the resilience of these countries and the resolution of frozen conflicts. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)