ForMin Comanescu to attend informal meeting of EU foreign ministers

Romania’s Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu will attend the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers (Gymnich) and the Conference of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs from the Barcelona Process countries due in Marseille, on Nov 3-4.

During the informal meeting (Gymnich), the EU foreign ministers will continue the talks started in Avignon, on Sept 5-6, on the consolidation of the Transatlantic relation viewing the identification of the priority cooperation fields in this relation, reads Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) release to Agerpres.

The talks within the Conference of the Foreign Ministers of Barcelona Process: the Union of Mediterranean will approach institutional aspects, as well as the Union of Mediterranean’s projects and action plan for 2009.

On this special occasion, the Foreign Ministers of the countries participating in the Union of Mediterranean will also exchange opinions on the topical issues on the regional and the international agenda, the same source informs.

The Gymnich meetings, whose name comes from the Germany-based castle, where such a meeting was held for the first time, in 1974. Gymnich meetings happen every half a year and allow a free and thorough opinion exchange between the EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs. No decisions are made and no conclusions are drawn in the Gymnich meetings, but the discussions held here allow the preparation of the background lines of the EU diplomacy during any member country’s EU chairmanship.

The heads of states and the prime ministers of the EU and the Mediterranean countries launched the Barcelona Process: Union of Mediterranean invitation, in Paris on July 13, 2008, aimed at reinvigorating the transformation efforts of the Mediterranean region in an area of peace, democracy, cooperation and prosperity.

The initiative is meant at consolidating the Barcelona Process launched in 1995, represents a many-sided partnership, and aims at increasing the integration potential and the regional cohesion. AGERPRES