The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced, on Monday 15 November, that the EU/Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting had demonstrated a strong commitment to the region and the EU’s willingness to cooperate in addressing common challenges with the countries in the region.
At the meeting, “we discussed the practical implementation of our ambitious new agenda in light of the upcoming summit” of the Eastern Partnership on 15 December, the High Representative said.
On their arrival in Brussels, the Ukrainian and Moldovan ministers, Dmytro Kuleba and Nicu Popescu, advocated for a rapprochement of their countries with the EU. Mr Kuleba said he hoped that the December summit would be a “demonstration of the EU’s clear ambition regarding the strategic objectives of its relations with partners”. He also said he hoped that the “more-for-more” principle will be fully applied to the trio of associated countries - Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.
While Belarus was not invited to the meeting because of the current crisis, the Europeans kept an empty seat as a symbolic place for the Belarusian people, Mr Borrell said.
On Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 November, the High Representative expressed the EU’s concerns about the situation on the Ukrainian border, where large-scale Russian troop movements have been detected, all the while saying that he had little additional information on this situation. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)