In order to ensure the highest quality of our services, we use small files called cookies. When using our website, the cookie files are downloaded onto your device. You can change the settings of your browser at any time. In addition, your use of our website is tantamount to your consent to the processing of your personal data provided by electronic means.

Back

Talks of EU and Eastern Partnership’s heads of diplomacy

12.06.2020

“During the pandemic, the EU must send a strong message of support for the Eastern Partnership states and the region,” said Minister Jacek Czaputowicz during the meeting of the EU and Eastern Partnership foreign ministers.

Talks of EU and Eastern Partnership’s heads of diplomacy

The main goal of the foreign ministers’ virtual session was to prepare the videoconference of heads of states and governments, scheduled for 18 June. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will represent Poland during the conference.

The ministers underlined the EU’s aid for the EaP countries to help them combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and face social and economic impact of the crisis. “We should focus our actions on the reconstruction of the EaP countries’ economies,” stressed the chief of Polish diplomacy.  “Thus, we can deepen the relations of these countries with the EU and enhance their resilience to other crises,” he added.
 
Minister Czaputowicz also underlined that in the medium-term perspective, the EaP and EU states should strive to align their legal systems, improve sectoral cooperation and their political and institutional integration. “We agreed that the Initiative should include practical projects to make local communities of the EU neighbouring countries feel that the cooperation actually helps them face the post-pandemic economic and social challenges,” said the minister.  In this context, Minister Czaputowicz noted that - faced with epidemic-induced crisis - the Eastern Partnership countries received substantial humanitarian aid from Poland. He also pointed out that “20 deliverables for 2020” as current political framework for the Eastern Partnership is a good starting point to set ambitious EaP goals for the decade to come in the other half of 2020.

***

Eastern Partnership is an initiative defining the Eastern dimension of the European Union's policy in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Polish diplomatic actions supported by Sweden gave rise to the Partnership. The programme was launched in Prague in 2009 during the Czech presidency. The Initiative aims to enhance cooperation with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The EU-Eastern Partnership leaders’ summit, originally scheduled for 18 June 2020, will be replaced by a videoconference of heads of states and governments. Poland is in favour of arranging the physical EU-EaP Summit in early 2021. 

 

MFA Press Office

 

Photo: Tymon Markowski / MFA

{"register":{"columns":[]}}