Minister Pusić: Time to redefine relations between EU and southern neighbours

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić attended an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from the Southern Partnership (Mediterranean) countries

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić attended an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from the Southern Partnership (Mediterranean) countries, held today in Barcelona.

“We discussed the need to change the concept of the relations between the EU and its southern neighbours. Given that the last such ministerial meeting was held seven years ago, the time has come to redefine relations between the two blocs, which have grown in importance for security, energy and economic reasons,” Pusić said. “Over the past few years, relations and topics dominating relations between the EU and southern Mediterranean are primarily of a security nature, the fight against terrorism, global security and the security of the Mediterranean regions, and the question of migration,” she said. The only countries that are more threatened by terrorist attacks than those on the European side of the Mediterranean are Arab countries in the southern Mediterranean where terror is hiding behind Islam, Pusić said, adding that terrorism had nothing to do with Islam, but had everything to do with the Mediterranean region. “Europe wants a partnership with these countries in the fight against terrorism and extremism in the broadest context, through concrete measures of direct suppression of terrorism and long-term economic measures as well,” Pusić told reporters.

The meeting focused on the future of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and priority sectors of cooperation within the ENP, as well as on common challenges in the region, such as terrorism, migrations, energy and regional instability, and the ENP's contribution to their resolution.

The ENP was created in 2003 to promote the EU's relations with its southern and eastern neighbours. The EU offers those countries a special relationship or partnership and promotes regional cooperation to provide response to different regional challenges. The ENP was last revised in 2011 in response to the Arab Spring. 

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