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EU Summit Welcomes Eastern Partnership Initiative

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  • EU Summit Welcomes Eastern Partnership Initiative

    EU SUMMIT WELCOMES EASTERN PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

    Xinhua
    Dec 12, 2008

    BRUSSELS, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders on Friday
    welcomed the Eastern Partnership initiative proposed by the European
    Commission last week, which aims to significantly strengthen EU policy
    with regard to its eastern partners.

    The assembled heads of state called on the EU Council to study the
    proposal and report back with a view to the initiative being approved
    at the 27-nation bloc's summit next March, said a draft document
    released after the conclusion of a two-day EU summit Friday.

    The union aims to officially launch the Eastern Partnership at a
    summit meeting with partner countries organized by the incoming Czech
    presidency of the EU in the first half of next year.

    EU leaders believe that the Eastern Partnership would help the
    partner countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova
    and Ukraine make progress in their reform process by contributing to
    their stability and further movement toward the EU, said the document.

    The Partnership foresees free trade, easier travel to the EU for
    citizens of these nations, enhanced energy security arrangements
    benefiting all concerned, and increased financial assistance, security
    and defense consultations, as well as far-reaching economic integration
    with the EU, the document added.

    Under the plan, the EU will triple its aid to the six partner countries
    to 1.5 billion euros (1.95 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020.

    The EU summit also endorsed guidelines adopted at last month's meeting
    between the group's foreign ministers and their counterparts from
    the members of the Barcelona Process Union for the Mediterranean,
    and called for further ambitious implementation of this initiative
    to establish the Union for the Mediterranean in all its dimensions.
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