General Affairs/External Relations Councils

The general affairs/external relations council will be held in Brussels on Monday, July 18, 2005. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and European Affairs Minister Delegate Catherine Colonna will represent France.

The British presidency will present its program of work at the meeting. The Commission will review questions relating to enlargement.

During the external relations segment, the council’s discussions will focus on preparations for the EU-China summit, the peace process in the Middle East, Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

Ministers will discuss the state of preparations for the UN summit in September and will also review the negotiations at the WTO. They will also discussion the situation in Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.

The minister is scheduled to give a press briefing in Brussels on July 18 in the early afternoon.

On the sidelines of the council there will be:

The EU-FYROM association and stabilization council (July 18 at 4 p.m.);

The EU-Kazakhstan cooperation council (July 18 at 7:40 p.m.) and an informal dinner of EU trade ministers (July 18 at 7:30 p.m.).

(...)

There will be no specific discussion about Syria. Roed Larsen will talk about what is usually called the Syria-Lebanon dossier, including Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon, under resolution 1559. (...)

The peace process in the Middle East will also be discussed at the luncheon and Mr. Solana will brief the council on his trip to the region—he was there from July 10 to 14. We’ll come back to this later as I have a statement about the recent events in the region. At this time the climate is troubling, and ministers will be discussing these latest developments.

Iran will also be discussed at the luncheon. Ministers will discuss the prospects of the negotiations with Iran on the nuclear question following the election of the new Iranian president. No new development is expected. We are committed to presenting a package of proposals to Iran at the end of July or early August. We are working on this issue with our European partners, in complete transparency with the United States, the Russians and the other international partners. From our point of view, in any case, it is important to move forward and make the Iranians a substantial offer in this matter.

Q - Can you tell us where the discussions stand with China (...)? And what’s happening with the arms embargo?

With regard to relations with China, the council of ministers will be preparing for the EU-China summit which is to be held in Beijing on September 5. This will be an important meeting. These summits are held regularly, and the next one is in Beijing. EU positions on the various items on the agenda will have to be adopted.

In the case of the arms embargo, you’re well aware of the situation. The European council had set a deadline for reaching a decision in June 2005. For reasons known to you, it wasn’t possible to reach a decision and get the requisite unanimity to end the embargo. On the French side, we regretted this. But we continue to think all is not lost. In other words, that the goal of lifting the embargo must continue to inspire us for the work ahead. And we hope the discussions on this matter will resume at a timely moment. It will probably be very difficult to reach a decision before September 5, but for our part we wish to maintain course towards lifting the arms embargo.

(...) This presupposes, on a more technical note, that a definitive agreement is reached on the code of conduct and the so-called "tool-box" for countries emerging from embargo. Then there is also a whole raft of other issues that will be discussed at the summit, visa questions, readmission, more technical questions as well, and trade matters, the status of market economy for the Chinese economy. A whole slew of subjects will be discussed at the EU-China summit on September 5.

  Press conference given by M. Philippe Douste-Blazy (Brussels, 18 July 2005)