Fifth Meetings of the Cooperation Councils between the EU, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

On Tuesday, 30 September 2003, the European Union (EU) hosted the fifth meetings of its Cooperation Councils with the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The three bilateral meetings were followed by a joint ministerial working lunch with the participation of the High Representative for CFSP, Mr. Javier Solana Madariaga, and the Commissioner for External Relations, Mr. Chris Patten. The meetings were chaired by Mr. Roberto Antonione, Italian Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and head of the EU delegation. For the first time, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, also took part in the meetings.

For the partner countries, Mr. Vartan Oskanian led the Armenian delegation, Mr. Vilayat Guliyev led the Azerbaijani delegation, and Mr. Irakli Menagarashvili led the Georgian delegation.

The Cooperation Councils provided a timely opportunity to take stock of developments in the South Caucasus, as well as a unique chance to sit with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the same table.

This year's meetings also took place in the approach to EU enlargement, which will have significant implications for the South Caucasus. They provided a useful informal exchange of views on issues of mutual interest, including Wider Europe, conflicts in the South Caucasus, and regional stability.

The three Cooperation Councils form part of a wider process started in 2001, when the EU stated its intention to play a more active political role in the South Caucasus (6506/01). This year has seen the EU make some real progress in that direction. The recent remarks of High Representative Javier Solana concerning the EU security strategy have made clear the importance to the EU of the South Caucasus. This work builds on the political commitment to the region shown by the EU in the Joint Declaration (9405/99) and Joint Communiqué (13136/01) with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Earlier this year (7-10 July), a ministerial-level EU Troika visited the region for the second time. This followed the appointment of an EU Special Representative (EUSR) for the South Caucasus. The EU has set out certain policy objectives in the region, and is continuing internal work to develop its policy.

Later this year the EUSR will make recommendations to the Council for future directions.

The immediate priority for the EU is to respond to important political developments in the region.

Already this year, the EU has stated its position on the Armenian presidential elections (7639/03) and parliamentary elections (10724/03). The EU will watch closely the presidential elections in Azerbaijan (15 October) and the parliamentary elections in Georgia (2 November).

At these fifth meetings of the Cooperation Councils, the EU underlined its wish to make more operational dialogue under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements. Otherwise priorities remain similar to those in previous years.

The EU looked forward to the opening of frontiers and development of regional cooperation. To this end, it offered its assistance to achieve the peaceful resolution of conflicts. The EU underlined that development of democracy and human rights is an important factor in promoting stability. It also offered support to develop the business climate and to reduce poverty.

One new element this year was an accent on developing energy dialogue with countries of the South Caucasus. This is to address both concerns at the energy and environmental situation in the region itself and to support efforts towards transparency and accountability in the use of energy revenues.

Since independence the EU has provided a total of over € 1 billion in aid to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia from Community funds, with a comparable amount coming from EU Member States.

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