Eastern Partnership summit starts in Warsaw

EU leaders and representatives of the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) will attend the Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw on September 29 and 30, Polish Press Agency reported.

The summit is expected to confirm support for the Eastern Partnership Project and acknowledge "European aspirations" of EU's eastern neighbours.

The summit will be attended by President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Spain's Prime Minister Jose Zapatero, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Britain's deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

Five Eastern Partnership countries will be represented in Warsaw - Ukraine by President Viktor Yanukovych, Georgia by President Mikheil Saakashvili, Azerbaijan by President Ilham Aliyev, Armenia by President Serzh Sargsyan and Moldova by Prime Minister Vlad Filat. Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhei Martynau declined the invitation to attend the summit.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will not attend the summit either.

A number of informal meetings will accompany the summit. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk is expected to hold talks with France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych. Also Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski is expected to meet France's prime minister.

The Eastern Partnership summit will be one of the major events under Poland's current EU presidency. The summit will adopt a declaration acknowledging the "European aspirations" of EU's eastern partners, promise gradual transition to visa-free traffic and gradual integration with the EU market.


/Trend/