Council of the European Union — 3023rd Council meeting Part 2

The Coun­cil approved the EU’s pri­or­i­ties, with regard to peace and secu­ri­ty, envi­ron­ment, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and human rights, for the 65th ses­sion of the Unit­ed Nations Gen­er­al Assem­bly, which will start in Sep­tem­ber (10170/10).

The Treaty of Lis­bon reaf­firms the EU’s com­mit­ment to the prin­ci­ples of the UN char­ter, call­ing for mul­ti­lat­er­al solu­tions to com­mon prob­lems and chal­lenges. To con­tribute to the achieve­ment of this objec­tive, the EU will con­tin­ue to strive to build a stronger mul­ti­lat­er­al sys­tem, notably by enhanc­ing the rep­re­sen­ta­tive­ness, trans­paren­cy, account­abil­i­ty, effi­cien­cy and effec­tive­ness of the Unit­ed Nations.

EU/ Uzbek­istan — Mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing on energy

The Coun­cil endorsed the text of a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing on coop­er­a­tion with Uzbek­istan in the field of energy.

The Mem­o­ran­dum fol­lows up the strat­e­gy for a new part­ner­ship between the EU and the coun­tries of Cen­tral Asia, adopt­ed by the Euro­pean Coun­cil in June 2007, which high­light­ed the com­mon inter­est in diver­si­fy­ing export routes, demand and sup­ply struc­tures and ener­gy sources, and sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of mar­ket econ­o­my struc­tures in the Cen­tral Asia.

Rela­tions with Cen­tral Asia

The Coun­cil approved a joint report by the Coun­cil and the Com­mis­sion on the imple­men­ta­tion of the EU strat­e­gy for Cen­tral Asia.

The report states that imple­men­ta­tion of the strat­e­gy has enabled impor­tant advances over the past three years in edu­ca­tion, as regards eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, trade and invest­ment, ener­gy and trans­port, envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies, and com­mon threats and chal­lenges. Impor­tant ini­tia­tives have also been put in place to pro­mote human rights, rule of law, good gov­er­nance and democ­ra­ti­sa­tion. The EU strat­e­gy for a new part­ner­ship with Cen­tral Asia, which was adopt­ed by the Euro­pean Coun­cil in June 2007, enabled the strength­en­ing rela­tions with the five coun­tries of Cen­tral Asia: Kaza­khstan, Kyr­gyzs­tan, Tajik­istan, Turk­menistan and Uzbekistan. 

Arms trade treaty

The Coun­cil adopt­ed a deci­sion on EU activ­i­ties in sup­port of the prepara­to­ry process lead­ing up to the UN Con­fer­ence on the arms trade treaty (8683/10).

The deci­sion is aimed at sup­port­ing UN mem­ber states in devel­op­ing and improv­ing nation­al and region­al exper­tise to imple­ment effec­tive arms trans­fer con­trols, in order to ensure that the future arms trade treaty, when com­ing into force, will be as effec­tive as pos­si­ble. CFSP main aspects and basic choic­es – 2009 Annu­al report

The Coun­cil endorsed the 2009 annu­al report from the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Euro­pean Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy to the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment on the main aspects and basic choic­es of the Com­mon For­eign and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy. It is HR Ashton’s first annu­al report to be pre­sent­ed to the Euro­pean Parliament.

Look­ing back at 2009, the report iden­ti­fies the pro­lif­er­a­tion of weapons of mass destruc­tion, con­ven­tion­al weapons, ter­ror­ism, ener­gy secu­ri­ty, cli­mate change and region­al con­flicts as major threats to Euro­pean secu­ri­ty and out­lines the actions that were under­tak­en in response to these challenges.

More­over, it sets out EU efforts to build sta­bil­i­ty in Europe and beyond via dif­fer­ent poli­cies such as enlarge­ment, the Euro­pean Neigh­bour­hood Pol­i­cy, and oth­er spe­cif­ic agree­ments; it illus­trates the EU’s con­tri­bu­tion to a more effec­tive mul­ti­lat­er­al order through its coop­er­a­tion with oth­er inter­na­tion­al and region­al organ­i­sa­tions and explains the EU’s role in pro­mot­ing democ­ra­cy, human rights, and the rule of law.

In addi­tion, the report out­lines EU attempts to con­sol­i­date rela­tions with strate­gic part­ners such as the Unit­ed States, the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, Chi­na, India, Mex­i­co, Brazil, Japan, Cana­da, and South Africa and pro­vides an overview of EU endeav­ours in the fields of con­flict pre­ven­tion, con­sol­i­da­tion, and diver­si­fi­ca­tion of CSDP.

Look­ing ahead to 2010, the report iden­ti­fies upcom­ing polit­i­cal chal­lenges and ini­tial EU respons­es to tack­le them. Against this back­ground it draws the con­clu­sion that although much has been achieved in build­ing a secure and pros­per­ous neigh­bour­hood, threats have increased, and much still remains to be done in these areas. 

Iraq — Inte­grat­ed Rule of Law mission

The Coun­cil adopt­ed a deci­sion extend­ing by 24 months the EU’s inte­grat­ed rule of law mis­sion in Iraq (EUJUST LEX Iraq), from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2012.

Dur­ing this addi­tion­al peri­od, EUJUST LEX will pro­gres­sive­ly shift its activ­i­ties and rel­e­vant struc­tures to Iraq, focus­ing on spe­cialised train­ing, while main­tain­ing out-off-coun­try activ­i­ties. The deci­sion pro­vides for an addi­tion­al finan­cial ref­er­ence amount of EUR 17.5 mil­lion. Tak­ing into account fur­ther devel­op­ments in the secu­ri­ty con­di­tions in Iraq and the out­come of the mission’s activ­i­ties in Iraq, the Coun­cil will exam­ine the results of the new man­date and decide on the future of the mis­sion after 30 June 2012.

EUJUST LEX Iraq was estab­lished by joint action 2005/190/CFSP.

Part­ner­ship and coop­er­a­tion agree­ment with Uzbekistan

The Coun­cil autho­rized the Com­mis­sion to open nego­ti­a­tions on an agree­ment amend­ing the EU’s part­ner­ship and coop­er­a­tion agree­ment with Uzbekistan.

Rela­tions with the South Cau­ca­sus — Coun­cil conclusions

The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing conclusions:

“1. The Coun­cil recalls its Con­clu­sions of 8 Decem­ber 2009 wel­com­ing the expressed com­mit­ment of Arme­nia, Azer­bai­jan and Geor­gia to enhance their respec­tive rela­tions with the EU with­in the frame­work pro­vid­ed by the East­ern Part­ner­ship, as a spe­cif­ic East­ern dimen­sion of the Euro­pean Neigh­bour­hood Policy. 

2. The Coun­cil looks for­ward to the launch of nego­ti­a­tions for future Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ments in the course of July 2010, with a view to estab­lish polit­i­cal asso­ci­a­tion and achieve grad­ual eco­nom­ic inte­gra­tion of these coun­tries with the EU, includ­ing the estab­lish­ment of Deep and Com­pre­hen­sive Free Trade Areas, once the coun­tries have met the nec­es­sary con­di­tions. The nego­ti­at­ing process­es will be guid­ed by the prin­ci­ples of inclu­sive­ness, dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, con­di­tion­al­i­ty and joint own­er­ship. The Coun­cil under­lines that active engage­ment of the part­ner coun­tries and their com­mit­ment to shared val­ues and prin­ci­ples, includ­ing democ­ra­cy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and good gov­er­nance are essen­tial to make the nego­ti­a­tions and the imple­men­ta­tion of these ambi­tious agree­ments a suc­cess. The EU is com­mit­ted to assist the part­ner coun­tries in this regard.

3. The Coun­cil notes that the recent deci­sion on the estab­lish­ment of the new sub­com­mit­tees under the Part­ner­ship and Coop­er­a­tion Agree­ments cur­rent­ly in force with the coun­tries of the South Cau­ca­sus will con­sid­er­ably broad­en the sec­toral dia­logue and con­tribute to advanc­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the ENP Action Plans.

4. The Coun­cil recog­nis­es the high impor­tance attached to mobil­i­ty of cit­i­zens by the coun­tries of the South Cau­ca­sus. Bear­ing in mind the impor­tance of a secure envi­ron­ment, and in accor­dance with the Stock­holm Pro­gramme and the Joint Dec­la­ra­tion of the Prague East­ern Part­ner­ship Sum­mit, the EU stands ready to pro­mote mobil­i­ty of cit­i­zens of the South Cau­ca­sus coun­tries and oth­er East­ern Part­ner­ship coun­tries through visa facil­i­ta­tion and read­mis­sion agree­ments, and once these are suc­cess­ful­ly con­clud­ed and imple­ment­ed, move towards a con­trolled process tak­ing grad­ual steps towards visa-lib­er­al­i­sa­tion as a long-term goal, on a case-by-case basis, as well as describe the con­di­tions for well-man­aged and secure mobil­i­ty. In this con­text, the Coun­cil has invit­ed the Com­mis­sion to devel­op before the end of 2010 a plan on how to take coop­er­a­tion for­ward in this area.

5. The Coun­cil recog­nis­es that con­flicts ham­per not only the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of the part­ner coun­tries but also the region­al coop­er­a­tion and the sta­bil­i­ty of the Euro­pean con­ti­nent. In this con­text, the Coun­cil reit­er­ates its com­mit­ment to sup­port the process­es aimed at peace­ful and last­ing set­tle­ment of con­flicts in the region and calls on all par­ties to ful­ly com­mit them­selves to these processes.

6. The EU will con­tin­ue to pro­mote sta­bil­i­ty, pros­per­i­ty and coop­er­a­tion, through­out the South Cau­ca­sus, build­ing also on the oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vid­ed by the mul­ti­lat­er­al frame­work of the East­ern Part­ner­ship, and reaf­firms its com­mit­ment to assist Arme­nia, Azer­bai­jan and Geor­gia to this end.