The EU is committed to promoting cooperation with the member states of the Eastern European Partnership Program, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said on Thursday in Bratislava. Ashton made the statement following an extended meeting between the Visegrad Group foreign ministers and representatives of the Eastern Partnership Program, RIA Novosti reported.
The talks were also attended by European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule, and German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
Slovakia was represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, and Polish Secretary of the Foreign Ministry Nicholas Dovgelevich.
The foreign ministers of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as the deputy foreign minister of Belarus, have also arrived in Bratislava.
Ashton stressed that it is necessary "to intensify cooperation between the EU with these countries and support their integration ambitions and economic reforms."
"A concrete action plan will strengthen the connection between us," she added.
She noted that it has become clear that the Eastern Partnership Program was the "best form of cooperation at both the governmental and non-governmental level, as well as in business."
Ashton said the EU will further continue to work with non-governmental organizations in Eastern Partnership Program countries, so that civil society has a strong voice.
The Visegrad foreign ministers and the Eastern Partnership Program representatives are also attending the GLOBSEC-2011 Bratislava Global Security Forum in Bratislava.
The Eastern Partnership Program is a Polish-Swedish initiative under the EU Neighborhood Policy aimed at improving EU relations with six former Soviet countries Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia. The program envisages the allocation of 600 million euro to these countries until 2013 to strengthen state institutions, control borders and help small companies.
The program does not envisage opportunities for EU membership, but instead envisages facilitating the visa regime, energy cooperation, and the introduction of free trade zones. Small projects on student exchange, environmental protection, and energy supply will also be implemented.
The Visegrad Group was formed on Feb. 15, 1991 at a high-level meeting in Visegrad, Hungary, which created an imaginary historical arch linking the idea of this meeting to the idea of a similar meeting, which took place there in 1335. The central motif of the two meetings was the desire to intensify mutual cooperation and friendship among the three Central European states. In the wake of the disintegration of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Visegrad Group had since then been comprised of four countries, as both successor countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, are members of the Visegrad Group.