European Council approves Eastern Partnership
Economic crisis, energy security, Eastern Partnership and climate change were the main topics of the European Council to be held on the 19th and 20th March in Brussels.
| Concerned URL | http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/106809.pdf [] |
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| Source of information | EC Delegation to the Ukraine |
| Release date | 23/03/2009 |
| Contributor | David Conway |
| Geographical coverage | EU, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia |
| Keywords | Esatern Partnership |
The European Council welcomed the establishment of an ambitious Eastern Partnership. It calls for all necessary preparations to be made for the Eastern Partnership launching summit with the partner countries on 7 May 2009.
The Eastern Partnership will promote stability and prosperity among the EU's Eastern partners covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy.
The European Council commits to a deeper bilateral engagement and to a new multilateral framework involving the EU, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, aiming at accelerating reforms, legislative approximation and further economic integration.
The European Council further calls on the Commission as well as the current and incoming Presidencies to advance speedily with the practical implementation of the Partnership together with the partners and requests the Commission to submit in due course a report on the first year of implementation of the Eastern Partnership.
The European Council also reverted to the issue of energy security. It specifically agreed on setting up a crisis mechanism to deal with disruptions of supplies. It took further steps in preparation of the Copenhagen Conference on climate change.