Brussels, 18/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - As we already indicated (EUROPE yesterday p 5), on Monday the External Relations Council adopted conclusions on the western Balkans in which EU foreign affairs ministers welcomed the recent Commission proposal on the adoption of the European Partnerships with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Serbia-Montenegro (including Kosovo). The Council stressed that formal adoption of these partnerships "in the next few weeks" will send an important message indicating the EU's determination to implement all the aspects of the Thessaloniki Agenda, namely the "Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) with the western Balkan countries.
On Monday Ministers also adopted the annual assessment for 2004 (annexed to the conclusions mentioned above) on the progress achieved since last year in the implementation of the SAP, with individual conclusions on the situation in each of the five countries involved. We will be publishing the full conclusions in our EUROPE/Documents series.