Slovakia’s EU Council presidency finishing with honour, states Foreign Minister

" At the beginning of its first ever Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Slovakia pledged to focus on a positive agenda and to strengthen the EU in the interest of all its citizens. At the end of the Presidency I would like to say that we fulfilled this ambition," stated Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák at the final EU Council for General Affairs on Tuesday in Brussels. "Our first Presidency we can conclude with honour and with quite a long list of achievements in several fields," said Lajčák in his farewell speech. He also thanked those partners who, during the Slovakia Presidency, supported and helped him. "Special thanks go to dozens of Slovak experts, diplomats and all our employees, without whom this Presidency could not have been such a clear success," said Lajčák. As the Tuesday meeting of the Ministers for European Affairs of the EU was the last under the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council, Minister Lajčák symbolically handed over the presiding bell, used to open and close meetings, to the representative of the next Presidency country; Maltese Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech.