Co-Chair of EaP CSF Steering Committee Delivers Speech at EaP Informal Ministerial in Minsk

30 June 2015

On 29 June, Andrei Yahorau participated in the 5th EaP Informal Ministerial Meeting in Minsk. The meeting, which gathered foreign ministers of the EaP countries, EU Institutions representatives as well as the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, aimed at reflecting on the results of the Riga summit and discussing on how to take the Partnership forward across the agreed areas of cooperation.

The co-chair of EaP CSF Steering Committee urged decision-makers present at the EaP Informal Ministerial Meeting in Minsk to strengthen dialogue with EaP CSF National Platforms especially in the process of development of policy and EU-EaP documents. He also underlined the role of CSF members in communication with the EaP countries. ‘Rooted in various communities, civil society should be at the core of building local communication strategies on EU values and benefits of EU approximation reforms’, emphasized the co-chair at the meeting.

In his address, he also stressed the importance of the current ENP review. He brought the attention to the concept of the ‘differentiation’ and pointed out the need to ensure that relevant tools are applied to the actors, including not only Eastern partners’ governments but also civil society organisations, business sector or trade unions. He also suggested to apply different level of EU conditionality according to the differences in their political choices.

The co-chair reiterated the EaP CSF position that the EU membership prospects should be granted for countries, which signed the Association Agreements. Finally, Andrei Yahorau referred to the recent developments in Armenia and restated the EaP CSF position statement on the illegal actions of the Armenian authorities against peaceful protesters.

Full text of the address

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