Foreign Ministry Secretary of State, Andris Teikmanis to attend meeting of General Affairs and External Relations Council [24 Jul 2009]

On 27 July, the Foreign Ministry Secretary of State, Andris Teikmanis, will attend the meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), held in Brussels.

At the General Affairs session, Sweden is to acquaint the audience with its Presidency priorities, but the European Commission, in its turn, will present a report on the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The GAERC will consider the application by Iceland for EU membership and will decide on forwarding Iceland's application to the European Commission. On 16 July, 33 out of 36 members of the Parliament of Iceland (Althing) voted for the resolution to authorise the government to apply for membership of the European Union. An official application was submitted to the Swedish Presidency on 23 July.
At the External Relations session, the ministers are to adopt a decision on the extension of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia, as well as to debate the current situation in Georgia, including the consequences of closing the OSCE and UN observation missions. After the non-extension of the mandates for the UN and OSCE missions in Georgia, the EU mission remains the only independent international observer in the country.

The Council also intends to discuss the situation in Somalia and an eventual EU involvement in its stabilisation.

In view of the nuclear issue, and also the current post-election situation in Iran, a discussion is planned on the tactics of further operations and possible action in relation to Iran.

The GAERC meeting of the EU foreign ministers takes place on monthly basis and is chaired by the Foreign Minister of the country which holds the EU Presidency.  

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