The Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia, is expected to generate more tangible results and lead to a mobility roadmap as well as making it easier for citizens of Eastern Partnership countries to obtain visas, said Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs in Bratislava on Friday.
The heads of diplomacy of the Visegrad Four countries (V4: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), the Eastern Partnership countries and Latvia, Romania and Sweden met in Bratislava on Friday. Latvia currently holds the EU presidency. "I believe that there will be scope [at the Riga Summit] to open up new avenues of cooperation," said Rinkēvičs, adding that the Riga Summit must underline the importance of the Eastern Partnership programme and confirm the deepening of cooperation between the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
According to Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák, the main homework for the Eastern Partnership countries in the eyes of the V4 group is to pursue reforms and to strengthen democracy and the rule of law under which human rights are respected. "We're fully aware of our responsibility for the development of our closest neighbourhood. Therefore, we actively support reform processes in countries located east of our borders and actively share our experiences with the transformation process and reforms," underlined Lajčák.
