On 21 June 2018 the European Union and Armenia held the first meeting of the Partnership Council under the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which was signed on 24 November 2017 and entered into provisional application on 1 June 2018. The Council is the highest body established under the CEPA to supervise the implementation of the Agreement and to discuss issues of mutual interest. Armenia and the EU expressed their willingness to expand and deepen cooperation within the framework of this new legal basis, the Eastern Partnership and the reviewed European Neighbourhood Policy.

The Partnership Council welcomed the peaceful nature of the recent protests in Armenia, which led to a democratic change of government in accordance with the Constitutional framework. The EU praised the general restraint exercised by all sides and called for continued, inclusive dialogue among all political stakeholders, including civil society. The EU welcomed the Armenian Government’s clear commitment to fight against corruption and the concrete action the Armenian Government has taken in this field. The EU reconfirmed its support, including technical and financial assistance, for reforms to enhance democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights, as well as to increase prosperity and socioeconomic resilience in Armenia.

The Partnership Council highlighted the importance of amending Armenia’s electoral code in line with OSCE ODIHR recommendations to build confidence in the electoral process. The EU expressed its readiness to assist Armenia with the organisation and monitoring of new elections. The Partnership Council also stressed that an effective and independent judicial system is essential for the rule of law and an important precondition for economic and social development; indicated the need for swift progress with the development of a new Criminal Code and a new Criminal Procedural Code, and stressed the importance of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation.

In addition, the Partnership Council underlined the need to build further on the CEPA provisions in the field of trade through sustained efforts in order to secure a stable, business-friendly and predictable trading environment in Armenia, including full and timely implementation of the provisions on the protection of geographical indications. The Partnership Council also underlined the importance of good governance in the field of taxation with respect to the Code of Conduct on Business Taxation.

On energy, the Partnership Council underlined the importance of energy security, energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear safety in line with the CEPA and with the EU-Armenia Partnership Priorities signed on 21 February 2018. On transport, the Partnership Council looked forward to the signature of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement, initialled on 24 November 2017, which will improve market access and contribute to the highest safety, environmental and social standards. Furthermore, Armenia expressed its willingness to start a Visa Liberalisation Dialogue if all benchmarks are met.

The Partnership Council recalled that the EU-Armenia Partnership Priorities will shape the EU assistance priorities for Armenia. More than EUR 160 million is earmarked for 2017-2021. The Partnership Council stressed the need to make the best use of these resources, with a view to supporting the implementation of the CEPA and improving the living conditions of the citizens in a visible and tangible manner.

The Partnership Council took note of the European Neighbourhood Policy Country Report on Armenia, issued on 6 June 2018, and highlighted the very significant progress in EU-Armenia relations since the May 2017 EU-Armenia Cooperation Council. The Partnership Council decided that future reports would be titled Partnership Reports and focus on the implementation of the CEPA.

Complementary to bilateral ties under the CEPA, the Partnership Council highlighted Armenia’s active participation in the Eastern Partnership as an inclusive multilateral framework. Armenia confirmed its commitment to play an important, dynamic and constructive role in the Eastern Partnership framework. Both Armenia and the EU stressed the importance of achieving the Eastern Partnership 2020 deliverables. The EU underlined its readiness to discuss concrete suggestions on the development of cooperation under the Eastern Partnership in specific sectors.

The EU reiterated its support to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Furthermore, the Partnership Council underlined that finding a lasting and credible political solution to the conflict in Syria is of utmost importance. To help integrate Syrian refugees in Armenia, the EU mobilised EUR 3 million under the Madad Fund.

The EU reiterated its commitment to support the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Turkey and encouraged both sides to engage in this process without any preconditions.

Both parties confirmed their commitment to their international obligations with regard to Iran.

The Council was chaired by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Federica Mogherini. Foreign Minister Mr Zohrab Mnatsakanyan led the Armenian delegation.

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The Hague, 19 June 2018

The new EU law enforcement landscape takes shape

Today, lawmakers in Brussels took an important step towards improving Eurojust’s role in serving justice across borders for a safer Europe. They reached a provisional agreement on a new legal framework for Eurojust that will enhance the Agency’s operational capabilities and strengthen the cooperation with prosecution authorities of the Member States and partners in the area of Justice and Home Affairs cooperation, such as FRONTEX and Europol, in the fight against serious organised crime and terrorism.

Mr Ladislav Hamran, President of Eurojust, said: ‘I congratulate the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on the successful political agreement they have reached today on the new Eurojust Regulation. The new Regulation will make Eurojust fit for the future and increases Eurojust’s capabilities to support the national authorities in their fight against serious cross-border crime. The new landscape of law enforcement on EU level takes shape. With the new legal frameworks for Europol, the EPPO and now for Eurojust, the European Union steps up its pace to fight crime that is not limited by borders and takes yet another step in making the EU a safer place for our citizens. I hope that Member States will implement the new Regulation quickly.’

The new Regulation sets the objective to increase information exchange between Eurojust and Member States while ensuring an adequate level of data protection. It also brings governance reforms, including the creation of a new Executive Board, which will further improve Eurojust’s efficiency and management structure. Democratic oversight will be guaranteed through regular reporting to the European Parliament and national parliaments. The Regulation also establishes institutional, operational and administrative relations with the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office to ensure complementarity and synergies.

Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, also welcomed the agreement and stressed the importance of the agreement and the role of Eurojust: ‘Every year, Eurojust helps facilitate cooperation between national authorities in their investigations and prosecutions. In 2017 alone, Eurojust delivered concrete support in 4 500 investigations in all Member States and in cases which matter most to our citizens: terrorism, illegal migration and cybercrime, to name just a few.’

The provisional agreement reached today must now be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Following approval, the Regulation will be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later.

On 19 June 2018, EASO organised its Info Day, which marks the Agency’s anniversary since its official inauguration on 2011, in Malta.The annual EASO Info Day provides a chance to reach out and highlight various aspects of the services EASO offers to national asylum authorities. EASO also takes the opportunity of this annual event to concentrate on a specific discipline and highlight its work.

The core theme of EASO Info Day 2018 was the Role of Information and Analysis in the CEAS. Having accurate and detailed data and information is critical to any project. It is all the more important to synergise a multi-national effort to sustainably manage asylum in Europe.

EASO has a key role as an independent centre of expertise on asylum. In this regard, EASO:

This is why EASO, through its Information and Analysis Unit, places such great importance on collating, analysing and then distributing data and information to you – our stakeholders.
Click here to see more information about the role of EASO’s information and documentation in the CEAS. 

Several activities including informative seminars, workshops, lunch and learn sessions, pop quizzes as well as press events and events for schoolchildren and students have been organised with the cooperation of EASO’s network of national and communication contact points and hosted in countries across Europe. EASO Info days activities will be completed in early July including an event at the European Parliament. 

During Info Day 2018, EASO staff and national experts had the opportunity to discuss about EASO’s work, challenges and perspectives as well as to share knowledge, exchange of good practices and build on future objectives and activities.

Click here to see image gallery  

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Excellencies, colleagues, let me start by welcoming you all to Brussels and thanking Minister McKenna and Special Representative Xie for co-organising this meeting today. And sincere thanks to all of you, ministers and high-level representatives, for having accepted our invitation.

The EU, Canada and China have joined forces to encourage global leadership and ambition in the fight against climate change by building momentum for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Following the successful first MOCA in Montreal last year, we have convened this opportunity for ministerial guidance on the successful conclusion of the Paris Agreement Work Programme and on the other key political events at COP 24.

At a time where multilateralism is being challenged, this meeting is a living proof of our commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement and determination to find solutions and compromises, all of us, multilaterally. We will need Ministerial leadership to achieve comprehensive, balanced, effective results that are consistent with the spirit of Paris. The EU, China and Canada are determined to continue work with all Parties to this end.

The MOCA brings together Ministers and high-level representatives from the world’s largest economies and other countries from the different regional groups. In this more intimate and informal setting we hope to support – but not to replace or prejudge– the formal negotiations. As we have just heard in Berlin, achieving results at COP 24 will require us all to pick up the pace of negotiations, and to be well-prepared to send strong messages of political leadership. The agenda we have prepared reflects a subset of the key challenges that still need to be resolved.

The Petersberg Climate Dialogue hosted by Germany and Poland earlier this week provided for excellent high level exchanges. We see the next two days as an opportunity for deeper and more detailed peer-to-peer conversations on the political differences that we will need to resolve if we are to ensure a successful conclusion to COP 24.

We will kick off the meeting with general reflections on the outcome for COP 24 and its main deliverables, and tomorrow we will address key matters of the Paris Agreement Work Programme as it relates to action and as it relates to support. With six months between now and the closing plenary in Katowice, we must seize the opportunity of this MOCA to discuss — openly and sincerely — our individual asks and limitations.

At COP24 we must agree on guidance for the implementation of the Paris Agreement that unites Parties and does not divide them. This means a “rulebook” that is comprehensive, balanced, and carefully tailored to address each aspect of the Paris Agreement: cutting emissions, adapting to impacts and supporting implementation. The guidance agreed at COP 24 should be robust enough to deliver confidence that we are on track to implementing Paris, flexible enough to reflect relevant differences in Parties’ capacities, and dynamic enough to ensure that all Parties are improving their performance over time.

In addition, through the Talanoa Dialogue, the High Level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance, and the stocktake on pre-2020 action, Parties should be prepared to share our achievements and the lessons we have learned so far, and on how we can advance action and raise ambition from now into the future.

These processes will set the scene for the next round of NDCs and Long term strategies.

I look forward, in the plenary discussion to come, to sharing with you the details of how the EU is preparing for Katowice. This will include an update on the agreement of EU climate policies necessary for us to achieve our NDC, preparations for a new long term strategy to put us on track towards the Paris goals, and an EU Talanoa Dialogue, launched last week with the involvement of 600 stakeholders from across the EU and around the world.

Last Thursday, EU negotiators agreed to increase the 2030 renewable energy target to 32% up from the original 27% target on the basis of which our at least 40% emissions reduction target in our NDC was modelled. And yesterday evening, EU negotiators agreed on a new 32,5% energy efficiency target by 2030 up from the 30% original target. EU negotiators also agreed the governance rules to meet our climate and energy targets. Both new targets would de facto mean that the European Union would be in a position to raise the level of ambition of the NDC and increase its emissions reduction target from the current 40% to slightly over 45% by 2030.

Each of these recent developments in the EU shows that in addition to raising headline targets, ambition can emerge from the bottom-up: if we strengthen our policies, renewables and energy efficiency in this case, we should be able to achieve deeper cuts in our overall emissions.

One thing is clear: our collective Paris goal to pursue efforts to limit global average temperature rise to 2C and to limit this rise to well below 1.5C, requires each of us to look for deeper cuts than are reflected in our current Paris targets.

You can count on the EU to defend and implement the Paris Goals. But we clearly cannot do it alone: the EU accounts for less than 10% of global emissions today. To succeed, we need all countries, regions and actors around the world on board.

The MOCA is one way to contribute to getting everyone on board, so we look forward to our discussions.

I now turn to my good friends and colleagues Minister McKenna and Special Representative Xie to share their expectations for this MOCA.