Bijeenkomst in Brussel voorafgaand aan de EU-Rusland top (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Zweeds voorzitterschap Europese Unie 2e helft 2009 i, gepubliceerd op maandag 19 oktober 2009.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met today in Brussels as part of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council.

The EU delegation also included Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner i, Helga Schmid from the Secretariat of the Council of the European Union and Alfonso Diez Torres from the incoming Spanish Presidency.

“We have had a productive meeting with a review of the broad cooperation between the EU and Russia,” said Mr Bildt at the concluding press conference.

A large part of the meeting was devoted to the upcoming EU-Russia Summit to be held in Stockholm on 18 November. Climate is expected to be one of the more important issues discussed at the Summit.

“We also hope to be able to conclude a number of agreements between the EU and Russia at the meeting in Stockholm,” said Mr Bildt. “On the EU side, we attach particular importance to establishing an agreement in the area of energy security, or an early warning system,” said Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner.

Today’s meeting also included a review of the state of negotiations on a new general cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia and a number of regional and international issues.