The EU will mobilize EUR 17 billion in investments for the Eastern Partnership countries to develop a more dynamic economy and society in the region, said EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Oliver Várhelyi.
Várhelyi said at a conference on Ukraine reforms, which is taking place in Vilnius on Wednesday, that he is in Georgia today, but glad that he can join the conference via video link. He said he was engaged in delivering a very positive message for the Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, about a significant new economic and investment plan for the region, adding that they are mobilizing EUR 17 billion investment for the region, in order to build new, more sustainable and more dynamic economies and societies in the region.
The Eastern Partnership Summit will take place in December, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Thursday following a meeting with the foreign ministers of the three Eastern Partnership countries – Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
The ministers of the three countries visited the EU capital for the first time in the format of the so-called Associated Trio.
“This year is an important year for the Eastern Partnership. Together with the Commission, we are in the process of finalizing the post-2020 agenda, which contains concrete deliverables and targets. Our Eastern Partnership summit will take place in December. I understand that all of us are sorry for the fact that it has [previously] been postponed, as has also happened with other summits. But in December, when this summit will take place, we will have an opportunity to set this new agenda in motion, and to agree on a common vision for the future,” he said.
Borrell said the EU is looking forward to further development of relations with the countries of the Eastern Partnership, which are “based on the principles of inclusivity and differentiation. Both have to be taken together and this will require flexibility from both parts.”
