V4 and the Eastern Partnership summit is held in Slovakia

V4 and the Eastern Partnership summit is held in Slovakia

The summit, where participate countries of the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Partnership, began on March 3, 2011 in Slovakia. At the summit take part the Foreign Ministers of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic (V4), as well as Foreign Ministers of the Eastern Partnership countries. These are Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Representative from Belarus, the country, whose authorities are now on the next round of confrontation with the EU, also participates in the summit. At the summit Belarus is represented by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Along with the foreign ministers of the Eastern European countries the summit is also attended by a number of major EU leaders, including EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the EU representative for foreign affairs and security policy Catherine Ashton.

During the summit will be discussed the possible economic and political cooperation between the countries of the Eastern Partnership with the EU. In particular, at this summit will be discussed issues of EU financial assistance to the countries of the "Eastern Partnership" group for 600 million euros. These resources will be spent on strengthening border controls and stimulation of small business development.

Another major issue of the summit will be security policies in Europe. Thus, the meeting countries will participate in GLOBSEC 2011 Bratislava Security Forum, which takes place in Bratislava from 2 to 4 March.

Eastern Partnership program was launched in 2009 as a tool of interaction between the EU and six former Soviet republics. Its first meeting was held on May 7, 2009 in Prague. The last summit of the "Eastern Partnership" was held in Budapest in 2010.

Date: 04/03/2011