Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Anže Logar met his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Thursday (16 December) to present the achievements of the Slovenian presidency of the Council of the EU and to continue work on key European dossiers. France will take over the presidency from Slovenia on 1 January.
The Foreign Ministry said that in addition to the effective coordination of measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the Slovenian presidency had made an important contribution to strengthening the EU’s resilience to all types of crises.
Logar stressed that Slovenia’s presidency had thus ensured a solid basis for keeping this important topic high on the agenda of European decision-makers.
Progress was made in other areas, such as economic recovery from the pandemic, the Ready for 55 climate and energy package, the digital transition, cybersecurity and security of the EU’s external borders.
Developments have also been achieved regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe, which will conclude in spring 2022 under the French presidency, the ministry added.
Slovenia has made it a foreign policy priority during its presidency to credibly continue the enlargement process. The two ministers agreed that this was an important incentive for the candidate countries to implement reforms.
Logar expressed particular satisfaction that France had also included the Western Balkans region among the priorities. He wished the French presidency a successful term and expressed Slovenia’s strong support in achieving all the tasks and objectives set.
Meanwhile, Le Drian expressed his positive assessment of the achievements of the Slovenian presidency and presented to Logar the key priorities of the French presidency for the next six months.
The two ministers also discussed bilateral relations, mentioned this year’s 10th anniversary of the signing of the political declaration on the strategic partnership between the two countries and expressed their commitment to further deepening the excellent Slovenian-French relations in the future.
Source: euractiv.com
