Eastern Partnership summit to start in Riga today

The two-day EaP summit will start in Riga today. It will begin in the evening. A business forum will be organized before the summit in the afternoon. The summit participants will discuss the process of the visa regime liberalization. The expansion og the European Union will not be discussed.

The leader of 28 EU member states and six EaP members will participate in the summit. The President of the European Council Donald Tusk will preside at the meeting. The EU bodies will also be represented by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström.

Six EaP member states will be represented by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev , Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Moldavian President Nicolae Timofti , Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili and Belarusian Minister for Foreign Affairs Uladzimir Makei.

The simplification of the visa regime for Belarus and the EU will not be initialed at the summit. The document is expected to be approved and signed in mid June – by the end of Latvia’s presidency in the EU.

The Eastern Partnership is a project of the EU’s cooperation with European and trans-Caucasian post-Soviet Republics. Three of its members (Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova) signed an association agreement with the EU in 2014. The fourth EaP summit will be held in Riga. The first meeting was organized in Prague in 2009.

Photo: Ria.ru