Remarks of Commissioner Štefan Füle at the Informal Eastern Partnership dialogue in Tbilisi (Europa.eu; 12/02/2013)

Štefan Füle

European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy

12 February 2013

First I would like to thank Georgia for hosting the second meeting of this Informal Eastern Partnership dialogue. It has become a useful tool in advancing the objectives of the Eastern Partnership. It is not by accident that we have met here today. Georgia is an example of consistency and determination in the implementation of the agreed reforms.

We discussed with our partners the recent political developments in Eastern Partnership countries and we focused on the preparations of and shaping the expectations for the Vilnius Summit in November this year.

We discussed what it takes to achieve a successful summit. We agreed that there is a need for vigorous reform implementation resulting in sustainable, tangible and visible deliverables.

We expect that the Vilnius Summit will yield concrete results, and we will manage to conclude Association Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Armenia. We are also advancing in the negotiation process with Azerbaijan.

We also stressed the importance of ownership of the process by our partner countries and the importance of bringing this process closer to the people.

We underlined the role of the Civil Society Forum and especially its National Platforms. Activities of National Platforms must complement the governmental track of the Eastern Partnership, provide specific input and recommendations to help us evaluate and promote the implementation and impact of the Eastern Partnership.

I assured the partner countries that the European Union is ready to continue and increase its support and financial assistance to help partners coping with the reform challenges based on the "more for more principle". The greater the commitment to advancing reforms, the more the European Union will be in a position to support its partners.