EU — Foreign Affairs — 30th Council meeting

The Coun­cil dis­cussed the sit­u­a­tion in Soma­lia, focus­ing on pira­cy and the issue of the pros­e­cu­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates cap­tured by ships tak­ing part in Oper­a­tion EU NAVFOR Ata­lan­ta. The High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive briefed min­is­ters on ongo­ing con­tacts with the Kenyan author­i­ties. She indi­cat­ed that she would be vis­it­ing the region short­ly, begin­ning with Kenya.

The EU has con­clud­ed trans­fer agree­ments with Kenya and the Sey­chelles. Agree­ments with oth­er coun­tries in the region are under dis­cus­sion. The EU is com­mit­ted to a region­al approach, based on region­al own­er­ship and EU sup­port for the coun­tries in the region in their efforts to ensure the pros­e­cu­tion and deten­tion of sus­pect­ed pirates.

EUNAVFOR Soma­lia — Oper­a­tion ATALANTA was launched in Decem­ber 2008 to con­tribute to the pro­tec­tion of World Food Pro­gramme ves­sels deliv­er­ing food aid to dis­placed per­sons in Soma­lia, to the pro­tec­tion of vul­ner­a­ble ves­sels sail­ing in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Soma­lia and to the deter­rence, pre­ven­tion and repres­sion of acts of pira­cy and armed rob­bery. As part of its efforts to sup­port sta­bil­i­ty and secu­ri­ty in Soma­lia, the EU just launched a train­ing mis­sion (EUTM) in Ugan­da to train Soma­li troops. 

NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION
The Coun­cil had an exchange of views on nuclear issues, against the back­ground of increased glob­al atten­tion as illus­trat­ed by the new START treaty, the Wash­ing­ton Nuclear Secu­ri­ty Sum­mit in April and the Nuclear Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty (NPT) review con­fer­ence that is cur­rent­ly under way in New York (3–28 May). The High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the open­ing ses­sion of the NPT Review Con­fer­ence, briefed the Coun­cil on the con­fer­ence and on meet­ings held in the margins.

In 2003, EU heads of State and gov­ern­ment adopt­ed an EU Strat­e­gy against the pro­lif­er­a­tion of weapons of mass destruc­tion. The EU pro­vides sig­nif­i­cant polit­i­cal and finan­cial sup­port to international 

IRAN
The Coun­cil dis­cussed the sit­u­a­tion in Iran, notably on human rights and the Iran­ian nuclear pro­gramme and Iran’s fail­ure to meet its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions under UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and IAEA res­o­lu­tions. The High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive report­ed on her dis­cus­sions on this issue with var­i­ous for­eign min­is­ters dur­ing her vis­it to the Unit­ed Nations in New York. Min­is­ters reaf­firmed the EU’s dual-track approach. The EU sup­ports the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil process on new restric­tive mea­sures against Iran. It will also con­tin­ue to keep the door open for nego­ti­a­tions if Iran shows real will­ing­ness to nego­ti­ate con­struc­tive­ly over its nuclear programme. 

EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT
The Coun­cil dis­cussed prepa­ra­tions for the 25th EU-Rus­sia sum­mit to be held in Ros­tov-on-Don on 31 May and 1 June. Min­is­ters focused in par­tic­u­lar on pri­or­i­ties for the Part­ner­ship for Mod­erni­sa­tion, pro­posed at the Stock­holm Sum­mit in Novem­ber. In this respect the EU will advo­cate a broad approach encom­pass­ing the rule of law and cit­i­zens’ rights. The Coun­cil also dis­cussed the issue of visas, on which the EU is com­mit­ted to the shared long-term objec­tive of visa-free trav­el fol­low­ing a step-by-step approach focus­ing on sub­stance. The glob­al eco­nom­ic cri­sis, cli­mate change and ener­gy issues, the ques­tion of Russia’s acces­sion to the World Trade Organ­i­sa­tion (WTO), as well as region­al and inter­na­tion­al issues will also be addressed at the summit.

EU RELATIONS WITH STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Over lunch, min­is­ters con­tin­ued the dis­cus­sion they had start­ed at their infor­mal meet­ing in March and at the For­eign Affairs Coun­cil on 26 April con­cern­ing the EU’s rela­tions with its strate­gic part­ners, this time focus­ing in par­tic­u­lar on Chi­na and Japan.