Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić attended 20 February in Brussels an informal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in the Development format.
The meeting discussed the framework for EU relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries after the Cotonou agreement expires in 2020. Said agreement is the last in a series of partner frameworks for long term political, development and economic partnership between the EU and 79 ACP countries in development. The current debate in the EU is directed towards upgrading that partnership in line with new global development trends, challenges and obligations.
Other topics included the EU Budget Midterm Review, more precisely the financial instruments financing the EU’s external and development policy, as well as the European Investment Bank’s proposal to found European Development Bank, an EIB’s subsidiary of sorts, which would deal with development loans abroad. In the afternoon, the EU foreign ministers discussed the implementation of Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the UN reform.