Strengthening relations with Neighbourhood among EU Foreign Policy priorities, Ashton tells MEPs

EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton told Members of the European Parliament that one of the three priorities of her mandate is to strengthen relations with neighbouring countries. “We have said many times that over the course of my time in office I have had three broad priorities: to set up the service, to strengthen relations with and to effect lasting change in our Neighbourhood, and to deepen and strengthen our relations with our Strategic Partners”, she said in a speech on the latest developments in the common foreign, security and defence policy.

“We are particularly well placed to influence events and promote stability and democracy in our Neighbourhood, both South and East. I have said it many times, we should be judged by the effectiveness of what we can achieve in our own neighbourhood. What we do and how we work with the people and countries around us is crucial for them but it's also extremely important for our own economic and security interests”, said the EU High Representative.

Regarding the Southern Neighbourhood, Ashton highlighted that the EU’s response to the events was “designed to strengthen the move towards a positive change and to embed deep and lasting democracy… Political and economic support has been targeted to incentivise reform, to promote inclusiveness – particularly for the role of women and young people – and to mobilise all forces in society including civil society and the private sector.”

The EU High Representative underlined the work being carried out to help Egypt reach political and economic stability, as well as EU’s support to the Middle East Peace Process and to the holding of the ‘Geneva 2’ Conference bringing together the different sides of the Syrian conflict. 

On the East, Ashton said: “Our aim is a common future that will ensure prosperity, security and guarantee long term stability. To bring our partners as close as possible to the European Union.”

She stressed that Ukraine should deliver on three issues: “improved legislation on the electoral process, a move to adopt ambitious reforms of the General Prosecutor's Office and of course to deal with the issue of selective justice. We need to see definitive progress in the case of Yulia Tymoshenko.” (EU Neighbourhood Info).—06D—