Foreign Minister Paet: EU Needs Strong European External Action Service That Can Help Citizens of Union in Crisis Situations
08.03.2010
Nr 76-E
At the informal Gymnich meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Córdoba, Spain, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet emphasised that in the interest of making the European Union more globally influential and making the union’s foreign service active and strong, the European External Action Service should be created as quickly as possible. “We need a comprehensive and strong European External Action Service that provides substantial support to the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy,” Paet asserted. He added that when choosing the personnel for the new foreign service, geographical balance must be ensured.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton gave the foreign ministers an overview of the current status of starting up the European External Action Service. Foreign Minister Paet stated that Estonia feels that co-operation and information exchange between the foreign service and the member states is important and necessary. “The European External Action Service should also have a leading role in planning out financial resources, for the sake of the coherency of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and development aid,” stated Paet. “We would like for the External Action Service to also include aspects of consular work, for example providing aid to European Union citizens during crisis situations,” he added.
Paet stated that the European External Action Service will increase the unity of the European Union foreign and security policy and also ensure that other external activities of the EU will be better co-ordinated.
The foreign ministers also discussed the EU’s foreign political challenges in relations with globally influential nations like China, India and Brazil.
In terms of political relations and economic co-operation, Brazil is one of the European Union’s most important partners in Latin America. Foreign Minister Paet noted that the quick signing and implementation an EU-Brazil visa freedom agreement would help to further intensify co-operation with Brazil. “Dragging out the implementation of the agreement is unacceptable. We hope that very soon it will be possible for citizens of Estonia, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus to travel to Brazil without a visa, just like other citizens of the European Union,” stated Paet.
Foreign Minister Paet said that the European Union should include its strategic partner China more in resolving global problems such as climate and nuclear issues and conflict regions that are in the global spotlight. “Dialogue is constantly taking place between the European Union and China regarding various areas, including human rights. It is also important to move forward with negotiations for the partnership and co-operation agreement between the European Union and China,” said the foreign minister, naming opportunities to advance EU-China co-operation.
While talking about relations between India and the European Union, the foreign ministers agreed that there is still plenty of room for development in political and economic co-operation and named the security, trade, climate and energy sectors as priorities. “In EU-India relations, Estonia feels it is important to focus on co-operation that would increase India’s role in stabilising the region, especially in making contributions to ensure the development of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. We would also like to advance co-operation with India in the fight against terrorism and piracy and increase security co-operation in the cyber security field,” said Foreign Minister Paet. According to the foreign minister, the development of EU-India economic relations would also be helped by a broad agreement on trade and the protection of investments.
Gymnich is an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union which gets its name from the Gymnich castle near Bonn, where the first meeting of its kind took place.
