Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will attend today in Luxembourg the last Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) prior to the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, which will discuss on the latest developments in Russia, military aid to Ukraine and Zelenski’s peace plan, the EU-CELAC Summit, digital diplomacy and the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, among other issues.
The first item on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council, which will be chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, will be the Russian aggression against Ukraine. At the beginning of the meeting, the European ministers will exchange views by videoconference with their Ukrainian Foreign Affairs counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, who will update them on the situation on the ground and on Ukraine’s current needs and priorities.
Later during the discussion, EU military support to Ukraine will be addressed, with a report by Borrell on the training activities of the EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine). It will also discuss EU support through the European Peace Facility (EFF), accountability for war crimes and other serious crimes committed in the conflict – including a discussion on the type of court to be set up to try the crime of aggression – and President Volodimir Zelenski’s Peace Formula.
The FAC will then discuss EU-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) relations, a few weeks before the EU-CELAC Summit, which will take place on July 17-18 in Brussels. In particular, EU Foreign Ministers will be invited to give their initial views on the proposals and priorities set out in the joint communication New agenda for EU-LAC relations, presented by the Commission and the High Representative on 7 June, and will address key priorities and issues for this and subsequent summits. The last FAC discussion on the Latin America and Caribbean region took place in July 2022. A CELAC-EU ministerial meeting was held in Buenos Aires on October 27, 2022, marking the resumption of a high-level bi-regional dialogue and closer political engagement with the region.
Subsequently, the Council will hold a strategic discussion on the next steps to be taken to further advance EU digital diplomacy based on the priorities outlined by the July 2022 Council, which highlighted the need to boost digital diplomacy in the EU’s external action given the growing importance of the digital and technological space in the geopolitical debate.
As for current affairs, the Foreign Affairs Council will discuss the situation in Tunisia and ministers will have the opportunity to exchange views on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, in the light of the current situation and the increased tension in northern Kosovo. On June 22, Josep Borrell held high-level meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albi Kurti. The High Representative will then refer to the ongoing work of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, towards the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, after meeting Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the so-called Brussels Format on 14 May.
