At a press session before the beginning of the informal meeting of Foreign Ministers in Salzburg, Foreign Minister Plassnik outlined the main priorities for the next two days.
“We have a heavy work programme ahead of us today and tomorrow. The Foreign Ministers’ informal Gymnich meetings provide a valuable opportunity for a frank exchange of views on important international issues, which is not bound by a formal agenda or the obligation to produce conclusions, so these meetings often lay the foundation for work we then continue in an official format”, Plassnik said.
"I am particularly interested in tomorrow’s discussion of the situation in the Western Balkans. This theme is a priority we specifically chose for our EU Presidency", Minister Plassnik continued.
“Our aim is to contribute to positive dynamics in the countries of the Western Balkans and to send an encouraging signal: confirmation of the European perspective of this region as a whole and of each individual country. The year 2006 will be characterised by difficult decisions in the region. It is therefore all the more important to create a predictable environment; it is essential in this context to maintain the EU offer. Our concern is to make this European perspective tangible and credible and thereby to strengthen the forces of reform, the forces in the region oriented towards Europe”, Plassnik said. “This strategy of encouragement is important not least in view of the enlargement fatigue that is becoming apparent in some quarters. The accession perspective was opened three years ago in Thessaloniki, we should not now tread hastily and arbitrarily on the brakes”, Plassnik declared, pointing out that the Balkans region had made significant progress in the three years since the Thessaloniki decisions.
On the first day of their informal meeting, the EU Foreign Ministers will discuss the situation in the Middle East and Iran, the dialogue of cultures and the situation prior to the elections in Ukraine and Belarus.
With regard to Iran, Minister Plassnik reiterated the international community’s explicit call to Iran to restore the basis of confidence in the nuclear issue and to cease all enrichment activities. “With the referral of this issue to the UN Security Council, we have entered a new phase. We believe that with goodwill, a negotiated solution through diplomatic means is still possible. There is always time for diplomacy”, she concluded.
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