SOUTHERN CAUCASUS: COMMON CAUSES AND COMMON LUNCHES FOR THE THREE REPUBLICS

Promoting regional co-operation has long been the hallmark of EU ties

with the three Southern Caucasus republics, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and

Georgia. And the context for their respective Co-operation Councils

with the EU in Brussels on September 30 was carefully geared to

reinforcing that message. There was plenty of common cause in the

agendas, with EU enlargement, Wider Europe, conflicts in the South

Caucasus, and regional stability featuring prominently in all three

meetings. And the three separate meetings were followed by “a unique

chance to sit with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the same table”

as the Ministers lunched together.

The European Union hosted the fifth meetings of its bilateral

Co-operation Councils with the three countries during the same

morning, then quite deliberately held a joint Ministerial working

lunch – attended at high level, with the participation of the High

Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, and the Commissioner for

External Relations, Chris Patten. The meetings were chaired by Roberto

Antonione, Italian Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on

behalf of the EU Presidency. And for the first time, the EU Special

Representative for the South Caucasus, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie,

also took part in the meetings.

The partner countries sent high-level delegations, too: Foreign Affairs

Ministers led the delegations, and Armenia’s Vartan Oskanian brought

four other Ministers with him, while Georgia’s Irakli Menagarashvili

brought five. And Vilayat Guliyev’s Azerbaijani delegation included

half-a-dozen senior officials too.

“The Co-operation Councils provided a timely opportunity to take

stock of developments in the South Caucasus”, said a single statement

from the EU after the meetings. The EU delegation underlined that

development of democracy and human rights is an important factor in

promoting stability. It also offered support to develop the business

climate and to reduce poverty. A new element in this round of meetings

was an accent on developing energy dialogue – relating to energy

and the environmental situation in the region, and to possible moves

towards transparency and accountability in the use of energy revenues.

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The three Co-operation Councils form part of a wider process started in

2001, when the EU stated its intention to play a more active political

role in the South Caucasus. The EU statement speaks of “some real

progress in that direction” this year. An EU Special Representative

for the region has been appointed. Recent remarks from CFSP High

Representative Javier Solana on the EU security strategy have made

clear the importance to the EU of the South Caucasus. And in July,

a Ministerial-level EU Troika visited the region. The EU has set out

broad policy objectives in the region, and later in 2003 the Special

Representative for the region will make recommendations to the Council

for future directions.

Already this year, the EU has stated its position on the Armenian

Presidential and Parliamentary elections, and it will watch closely

the Presidential elections in Azerbaijan (on 15 October) and the

Parliamentary elections in Georgia (on 2 November).

The EU underlined its wish to make more operational dialogue under

the Partnership and Co-operation Agreements. It looked forward to the

opening of frontiers and development of regional co-operation, and

offered its assistance to achieve the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Since independence the EU has provided a total of over Euro 1 billion

in aid to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia from Community funds,

with a comparable amount coming from EU Member States.