EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels

The EU foreign ministers discussed in Brussels on Monday a number of topical issues.

România Internațional, 24.05.2016, 13:07

The EU regional
security strategy for Syria and Iraq, the strategy for fighting the IS
terrorist group and the EU global strategy, as well as migration-related issues
were some of the topics approached on Monday in Brussels by the foreign
ministers of EU member states. The Union wants the fight against IS to be
carried on in parallel with a search for political solutions to the war in
Syria, said the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Member countries
view the IS group and its violent ideology as a threat to international
security and the European area.

Attending the
meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, the Romanian Foreign
Minister Lazar Comanescu highlighted the need to identify new means to prevent
the funding of terrorist groups. As regards the EU Global Strategy, the
Romanian official emphasised the importance of the challenges facing the Black
Sea region, as well as the pivotal role of this region in outlining new
regional security infrastructures, including in the area of transport and
energy.

Migration was
another topic on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council. The EU ministers
agreed to extend the naval mission along the Libyan coastline to tackle the
trafficking of people into Europe. The EU also pledged assistance to Libya to
rebuild its navy and coast guard forces, in order to curb migration.

Also on Monday,
Lazar Comanescu took part in a meeting of EU foreign ministers with their
counterparts from the Eastern Partnership countries, namely Moldova, Ukraine,
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus, in which talks focused on the
progress made in implementing the goals established at the 2015 Eastern
Partnership Summit in Riga. On this occasion, participants reiterated their
common commitment to further promoting the Eastern Partnership as a strategic
instrument of the EU in its eastern neighbourhood, based on shared interests
and goals, and on supporting the reforms in the partner countries. Here is the
Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazar Comanescu:

Beyond the
advantages entailed by these free trade agreements, we have suggested a number
of measures, which we hope will be implemented in the future, concerning, for
instance, services that benefit citizens, such as extending the mobile roaming
system to include the partner countries. The same goes for other such as the
European payment systems.

Comanescu also
suggested that measures should be identified to support these countries,
including investments in infrastructure and access to the European health
insurance card system.