Eastern Partnership Summit: Natural dimension of EU foreign policy

President of the European Council Mirek Topolánek and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso launched the Prague Eastern Partnership summit this afternoon.

The twenty-seven EU Member States want to use this partnership to strengthen their cooperation with six former Soviet Union countries.

The Czech Presidency deems the concept of strengthening contacts with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to be a natural counterbalance to the EU neighbourhood policy, "represented, to the West, in particular by transatlantic cooperation with the United States, and, to the South, by the Mediterranean Union project".

"The Eastern Partnership should not reinstate blocks or the fight for spheres of influence", said Mirek Topolánek immediately before the start of the summit. "It should not be a formal, but a pragmatic cooperation of equal partners in the field of trade and energy security, and also in the field of strengthening democratic principles and better governance."

The objective of the Eastern Partnership is to support stability, prosperity and multilateral building of confidence with the aim of contributing to territorial integrity and sovereignty of all partner countries. In addition, it should also support efforts to resolve regional conflicts peacefully.

More information about summit find in the events calendar.

Contact:

Jiří František Potužník, Spokesman of the Prime Minister for the Czech EU Presidency
Tel.: +420 224 002 497, GSM: +420 725 818 435, E-mail: [email protected]