Kastellorizo, 05/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The informal "Gymnich" Foreign Affairs Council met officially for the first time at the weekend, bringing together the ministers of the EU15 and of acceding countries. The meeting at 25 "involved practical difficulties as there were more people taking part, but the dialogue was highly constructive", Council President George Papandreou noted. He proposed a working method that could, in his view, prefigure the organisation of the Councils after enlargement: the different themes of the debate were introduced by a delegation.
Swedish Minister Anna Lindh thus presented a document on combating weapons of mass destruction. Irish Minister Brian Cowen took stock of developments in transatlantic relations and proposed a course of work (see above). The results of the summit of Four on defence were introduced by the Belgian minister, Louis Michel (see above). Luxembourg Minister Lydie Polfer had been entrusted with the task of speaking on the future of European Security and Defence Policy. Hungarian Minister László Kovács summarised the position of acceding countries.
Ministers unanimously underlined the richness of discussions and the historic importance of this first "official" meeting of 25. Candidate countries had been invited to the informal "Gymnich" meeting in Nyköping in Sweden in May 2001 but on the sidelines of the official meeting. EU15 diplomats expressed some surprise in Kastellorizo that contacts with their counterparts, who already have a firm grasp of the way things work in Europe, had been so "normal".