12/12/2012 President
Strasbourg, 12.12.2012 – At the end of their meeting in Strasbourg today, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon and Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, stressed that both PACE and the EU benefited from informal meetings such as the one today and agreed to discuss co-operation in specific fields on a more regular basis. In this context, Mr Füle confirmed his participation at PACE’s next plenary session on 24 January 2013.
Talks focused on the PACE President’s forthcoming visit to Moldova, the conflict in Transnistria and perspectives for settling it, the situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan in the context of the forthcoming chairmanships of these countries in the Council of Europe, as well as activities in the organisation’s southern neighbourhood, with particular reference to the countries enjoying Partner for Democracy status with PACE in the aftermath of the President’s visit to Morocco.
Jean-Claude Mignon recalled that it was one of the priorities of his presidency to step up co-operation between the Council of Europe and the EU institutions as they were “natural partners in providing these countries with European perspectives together with incentives and assistance for carrying out the necessary democratic reforms”.