Prague, 11/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairpersons (COFACC) of the EU ended in Prague on Tuesday 10 March (see also EUROPE 9857). In his concluding address, Czech Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra set out his three wishes: (1) rapprochement between the EU and NATO: “21 EU members are members of NATO,” he said, adding that “it is time that the EU works alongside NATO to maintain world security”; Vondra said he had spoken to Pierre Lellouche, recently appointed France's Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, about sending European instructors to train the Afghan military police; (2) greater attention to be given to the EU's neighbours: while welcoming the Union for the Mediterranean and the Eastern Partnership, Vondra said that “enlargement is still the most effective foreign policy instrument” and he called for negotiations with the Balkan states and Turkey to continue; (3) more energy than ever in transatlantic relations: the influence the EU can have on US foreign policy is “a source of its influence on the rest of the world,” Vondra said, and he hoped that the EU would work hand-in-hand with the US “on the Middle East, Iran, the Caucasus, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and also on energy security, climate change and the organisation of the financial world”.
The next COFACC meeting will take place on the island of Gotland in Sweden on
6-7 September. (P.B./transl.rt)