Luxembourg, 11/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - In Luxembourg on Monday afternoon, the EU and Jordan held the third session of the Association Council which allowed them to take stock of progress in cooperation undertaken under the partnership agreement and on developments in Euro-Mediterranean dialogue and the European neighbourhood policy, and on the development cooperation planned under the Agadir agreement- by four partner countries (Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco) with a "south-south" free-trade agreement.
Jordan is one of the countries with which the European Commission is to sign an national action plan to integrate its neighbour countries to the European internal market as far as possible and to bring them closer to the democratic standards in force in the EU. The President of the Council of the EU reminded Luxembourg that the degree of commitment on this path would determine the level of Community support and the intensity of relations. Both sides also held an exchange of information on developments underway in the respective regions. Political dialogue taken up under the agreement also gave them the opportunity to exchange their views on the major dossiers on international politics- the Middle East, Iraq- Jordan is one of the neighbour countries which suffers the most from the fallout of the situation in Iraq- the fight against terrorism and the means to fight the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.