Preparations for Eastern Partnership summit have begun

The Eastern Partnership summit due to take place in Brussels in November should not inform on how individual tasks have been carried out, but it also must offer a further vision, said the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák in Warsaw on Wednesday. Lajčák was attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Visegrad four countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) and Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine). It was the first political debate on what the Eastern Partnership summit should bring in November, while a debate at expert level in the EU was launched only last week," said Lajčák. As he added, the Eastern Partnership countries were initially offered association treaties with the EU, free trade and a visa-free regime. Lajčák further said that he did not believe that the EU would present tangible prospects of EU membership for eastern partners in November. As Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Susko said, the ministers at their meeting also discussed at length developing transport infrastructure between the EU, Eastern Partnership and certain third countries.