Internationaal seminar benadrukt belang Oostelijk Partnerschap voor Europa (en)

Participants of the international seminar on Eastern Partnership (EaP) which was held on 2-3 July in Vilnius underlined the increasing need for the European Union to take a more proactive role in ensuring international security and discussed the significance of the EU’s cooperation with its Eastern partners in implementing this role.

In the closing remarks of the seminar Deputy Secretary General for the European External Action Service (EEAS) Maciej Popowski emphasised that security should not be taken granted, but on the contrary, it require concerted actions of every actor, both of the EU and the partner nations, as well as a common approach to security challenges.

When addressing the significance and perspectives of the Eastern Partnership countries’ involvement in the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU representatives pointed out the importance of such cooperation both to the EU member states and partner nations. Practical contribution of the Eastern partners through deploying troops to the EU-led multinational operations as well as their possible input into CSDP activities, for example, by sharing specific knowledge and experience gained from participation in international operations, deserve noticing too.

Representatives of Ukraine, one of the EaP countries, in their turn, underscored the dimension of their country’s participation in the CSDP format as solidarity with Western values, as well as the fact that such involvement gave an opportunity of gaining valuable experience and contributed to the modernisation of the national armed forces.

M. Popowski also pointed out that mutual solidarity based CSDP cooperation of the EU member states and the Eastern partners in the field of security and defence did not conflict with independent national security and defence interests of the countries.

The high-level international seminar on Eastern Partnership was organised with the aim to address common security interests of the EU member states and the Eastern partners as well as the EU partners’ readiness to contribute to the CSDP initiatives by practical means.

The event was attended by high-ranking policy-makers from 27 EU and Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Union Military Committee (EUMC), experts from non-governmental organisations.

During its term of Presidency, Lithuania will seek to intensify the EU cooperation with its Eastern partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) within the area of CSDP and to include a discussion of this cooperation along with other CSDP issues to the European Council scheduled to take place at the end of this year.

As the host country of the EU Presidency, Lithuania also aims at assessing the instruments that would allow a closer cooperation of partner countries in the CSDP area with a view of promoting security sector reforms in the partner countries and contributing to building a safer Eastern neighbourhood.