Brussels, 08/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The fact that ten member states decided not to send top politicians to the summit in Prague on 7 May 2009 to launch the new “Eastern Partnership” does not make the decision by the EU to strengthen ties with its eastern neighbours any less “historic”, and the European Union “fully and unanimously” backs the new policy, explained Mirek Topolánek and José Manuel Barroso at a press conference after the meeting. The most notable absentees were the French president Nicolas Sarkozy (replaced by the prime minister François Fillon), the British prime minister Gordon Brown (replaced by the foreign minister David Miliband), the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (replaced by the labour minister Maurizio Sacconi), the Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero (replaced by the foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos) and Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker (replaced by the foreign minister Jean Asselborn).
Managing to bring together 17 EU prime ministers and the presidents of four non-EU countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia, Belarus and Moldova being represented at deputy prime-minister level) is no mean feat, said Topolánek, who was chairing his last big summit on Thursday before the new Czech government under Jan Fischer came to power on 9 May (which will chair the EU until the end of June 2009). The president of the European Commission also played down the absences. All member states were represented and all expressed very clear support for the Eastern Partnership, said José Manuel Barroso. He added that there was no doubt that the EU27 are unanimous in backing the new policy in the interest of the EU and its six partner countries. The political, economic and social approximation of the EU with its eastern neighbours will give everyone greater prosperity and stability, he said. François Fillon said in his speech in Prague that France backs the Eastern Partnership, pointing out that it was mooted by Poland and Sweden as an echo to the EU's Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) which was set up during the French Presidency of the EU in 2008. The French prime minister said that in the same way as the EU had relaunched its Mediterranean policy through the UfM, the importance of which everyone recognises today, likewise it is essential to develop the eastern dimension of European neighbourhood policy.
The EU has a “vital interest” in its eastern neighbours being stable, prosperous countries that respect the rule of law and human rights, said Topolánek. He said the Eastern Partnership, one of the Czech Presidency's priorities, was a local consequence of the EU's neighbourhood policy (ENP). Although the Eastern Partnership does not include the countries in question joining the EU in the future, neither does it prevent them from having EU ambitions and pursuing them in parallel, explained Topolánek. Not mentioning future EU accession at all, even Barroso admitted that the Eastern Partnership, with its offer to sign Association Agreements with the EU, negotiate free trade zones and gradually scrap visas, might be a “tool box” for some of the six countries to help them move closer to the EU and achieve their “ambitions”.
Details of the “Joint Declaration of the Prague Eastern Partnership Summit” were published in EUROPE 9896. The full document can be found at: http: //http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data /docs/pressdata/en/er/107589.pdf. (H.B./transl.fl)