EU Foreign Ministers to discuss Middle East peace process at informal meeting – EU press release/Non-UN document

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union will convene at the traditional semi-annual informal meeting – “Gymnich” – in Viana do Castelo, next 7 and 8 September.

The meeting is organized in four working sessions, pertaining to issues that are relevant to the present European agenda. In the first session, the Ministers will discuss the situation in Kosovo. Minister Luís Amado will speak about his recent trips to Belgrade and Kosovo. Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger will also be present at the meeting. In representation of the European Union, he is part of the troika following the new phase of the negotiations between the authorities in Belgrade and Pristine, for the resolution of the Kosovo issue.

In the afternoon the situation will be evaluated on a political level, regarding the negotiations that took place within the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), namely during the several meetings of juridical experts that took place in Brussels. Euro-MPs Elmar Brok, Enrique Barón Crespo and Andrew Duff, who represent the European Parliament at IGC, were invited to participate in this debate.

During the second day of this meeting the Portuguese Presidency will gear the debate towards the future of the Union’s external relations with its main regional partners. This discussion is part of the preparation of the Summits that will be held during the Portuguese Presidency and to which the Presidency would like to give a long-term strategic framework.

In the second day, to follow tradition, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of candidate countries – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey – will be invited for lunch. The situation in the Middle East will be debated: right now, Lebanon demands special attention but the evolution of the peace process between Israel and Palestine will also be dealt with.

The programme of the meeting is enclosed.