European Union

Good afternoon. We have just concluded our second EU-CELAC summit. Let me first thank all the heads of state and government who attended. The high rate of participation from both sides of the Atlantic is a sign of the importance we attach to our partnership. And I also want to thank President Correa, who has co-chaired with me. I think it is a great sign of the vitality of this relationship that this summit was also accompanied by a number of parallel events, organised and promoted by civil society, academics, businesspeople, trade unions, youth and parliamentarians. This partnership is not just a political one: it is much more than that.

The European Union and CELAC jointly account for one third of the world's countries. Together we can have a decisive impact on - just to bring a few examples - the global climate talks, the post-2015 development agenda and the fight against drugs. That is why we need to keep talking, keep getting closer together on the issues and aligning our approaches. That is why the European Union and the CELAC countries intend to take forward our political dialogue from here. From now on, we have decided that our foreign ministers will meet between summits to ensure swift follow up of decisions made by leaders. And they will bring forward recommendations for how we deepen the relationship and how we can work together more substantively.

To give you one example: climate change matters to us both: Latin American and Caribbean countries are very vulnerable to this threat. That's one reason that the Paris talks later this year have to succeed and why the EU will continue providing support to the region through its EUROCLIMA programme.

We also discussed international and regional security. Chile and Colombia have already signed agreements with the EU to participate in crisis management operations and we welcome other interested countries in the region to talk to us about this as well. The European Union supports the peace negotiations in Colombia and will back a future peace deal through the creation of an EU trust fund to support peace implementation. We are also supporting the process of modernisation in Cuba, which we hope will be reinforced when we finish talks on our Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement. I warmly welcome the steps towards full normalisation of the relations between Cuba and the United States.

The visa waiver agreements recently signed with five Caribbean States and just initialed with Colombia and Peru show our eagerness to bring our peoples closer together. After the entry into force of these agreements, more than 80 per cent of citizens in the CELAC region will be able to enter the Schengen area without a visa. These openings are possible thanks to the good cooperation we have on security of documents and immigration. We will continue developing this in the weeks and months ahead.

The CELAC region is very large and very diverse. For our partnership to be fully effective, we need to pay attention to sub-regional issues too. Today, we will hold two high-level meetings, one with the Heads of state and government of Central America and the other with the Heads of state and government of the Caribbean countries.

Finally, and importantly,  just before the summit, we initialed an agreement that will transform the EU-LAC Foundation into an international body, so that it can expand its work in promoting our partnership to our citizens. The EU will also continue its financial support to the Foundation, with €3 million over the next two years. Latin America and the Caribbean have become more prosperous and more confident and CELAC embodies the region's ambition to achieve closer integration - this is something we have strongly supported from the very beginning.

We can now confidently say - I am sure that President Correa agrees - that we are building a partnership of equals, based on mutual benefit and mutual respect. The direct fibre-optic cable that we agreed to build between our two continents is perhaps a simple but nonetheless strong symbol of our ever closer connection.

On 11 June 2015, the Latvian Presidency deposited, on behalf of the European Union, the instrument of approval of the Hague Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements.

“Progress in human rights in Azerbaijan can be best achieved through dialogue and engagement. Isolation and turning away will not help solve human rights issues in Azerbaijan,” said the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary for EU Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, expressing the position of the Council of the European Union at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 10 June.

We, the Heads of State and Government of the European Union (EU) and of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, met in Brussels, on 10 and 11 June 2015, for the II EU-CELAC Summit, our eighth bi-regional meeting, under the theme "Shaping our common future: working together for prosperous, cohesive and sustainable societies for our citizens".

As an expression of our shared determination to further strengthen our relationship, deepen our dialogue and given the importance we attach to the bi-regional strategic association, we have adopted a Declaration on a 'Partnership for the next generation'.

On 11 June 2015, the Latvian Presidency deposited, on behalf of the European Union, the instrument of approval of the Hague Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements.

At the same time, the Latvian Presidency made, on behalf of the European Union, the declaration allowed under Article 21 excluding from the scope of the Convention insurance contracts in general, subject to certain well-defined exceptions, and a unilateral declaration stating that the European Union may, at a later stage in light of the experience acquired in the application of the Convention, reassess the need to maintain its declaration under Article 21.  

The Convention will enter into force on 1 October 2015. All Member States (except Denmark) will then be bound by the Convention.

The Convention makes a valuable contribution to promoting party autonomy in international commercial transactions and to increasing the predictability of judicial solutions in such transactions. In particular, the Convention ensures the necessary legal certainty for the parties that their choice of court agreement will be respected and that a judgment given by the chosen court will be capable of recognition and enforcement in international cases.

Today in Brussels, Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma addressed the meeting of the Heads of State of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Within the framework of the Summit, topical issues relating to cooperation between the two regions were discussed, and the Brussels Declaration was adopted.

The Council of the European Union has been paying close attention to the corruption scandal in the International Association of Football Federations (Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA) with great concern, and this issue has come to the attention of officials at the EU Council, the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary for EU Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica pointed out at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 10 June.    

The Heads of State and Government of Member States of the Central American Integration System (SICA) met with the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with the purpose of reviewing the close cooperation between the two regions and adopted the following joint communique.

Indicative programme - Transport, Telecomunications and Energy Council meeting (telecommunications issues) - Luxembourg, 12 June 2015

Place:        KIRCHBERG building (KCC), Luxembourg
Chair(s):    Anrijs Matīss, Minister for Transport of Latvia 

All times are approximate and subject to change 

+/- 08.00     Doorstep by Minister Matīss

10.00          Beginning of Telecommunications Council meeting            

+/- 10.05     Digital Single Market Strategy
+/- 11.35     Interoperability programme ISA 2 (in public session)
+/- 11.55     AOB (in public session)
                    Telecommunications single market (TSM)
                    Network and information security (NIS)
+/- 13.25     Web Accessibility (in public session)
+/- 13.40     Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Council Conclusions
+/- 13.50     AOB
                     Work programme of the incoming Presidency

+/- 14.00     Press conference

Within the First Innovative Enterprise Week “Access to Finance for Research, Innovation and SMEs 2015” programme in Riga, Latvia, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will announce new financial instruments for the European Union science and research programme “Horizon 2020”.

Plenary sessions : The European Parliament regrets that recent corruption allegations against the international football federation FIFA have seriously damaged the credibility and the integrity of global football. In a resolution voted on Thursday, MEPs call for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption in football, underlining that in-depth structural reforms within the organisation are now urgently needed.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : The EU must critically re-assess its relations with Russia, which are profoundly damaged by Russia's deliberate violation of democratic principles, fundamental values and international law with its violent action and destabilisation of its neighbours , MEPs said on Wednesday. The EU must now devise a soft-power contingency plan to counter Russia’s aggressive and divisive policies, they said.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

In Riga, a high-level seminar in statistics of Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian (EECCA) countries discussed the draft Generic Statistical Law. The law will strengthen the institutional independence of statistical offices of the EECCA countries, impartiality of official statistics, and conformity with the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the European Statistics Code of Practice. Representatives from the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the European Free Trade Association and the national statistical institutions of EECCAA countries took part in the drafting of the Law.

Plenary sessions : MEPs state their concern at the high number of child pregnancies in Paraguay, calling for "access to safe and legal abortion" when the health and life of women or girls are in danger, "where there is severe foetal impairment and in cases of rape and incest". In separate resolutions they also call for the protection of the Palmyra site and draw attention to the situation of children in Nepal.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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EU Ministers for Transport, Infrastructure and Communications meet on 11 June 2015 in Luxembourg to discuss technical requirements for inland waterway vessels, the liberalisation of rail services, and air passenger rights.

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