|
Between 25 and 30 April 2003, Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sandra Kalniete was paying a working visit to France. During her visit on 28 April Ms Kalniete, together with Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kristiina Ojuland, and Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antanas Valionis, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Dominique de Villepin, and the Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Noëlle Lenoir. Their discussion embraced the EU institutional issues considered within the European Convention, perspectives for development in co-operating with the new neighbours of the enlarged Europe, and the Summit of the Defence Ministers of four EU member states to be taking place in Brussels on the following day, 29 April. Mr de Villepin stressed that France was interested in intensifying the dialogue with the Baltic States on issues related to the future of Europe and mentioned his prospective visit to the Baltic States. On 28 April, the Minister met with Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, Seiichi Kondo, to discuss possibilities for cooperation with the OECD after the termination of the Baltic Regional Programme. At the meeting, the Minister submitted an application for participation in the Education Committee; Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee; Committee on Fiscal Affairs; Committee for Information, Computer and Communication Policy; Maritime Transport Committee, as well as in working groups of the Committee for Agriculture. On 29 April, Ms Kalniete and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Estonia and Lithuania took part in a seminar organised jointly by the Embassies of the Baltic States entitled "Europe and the Baltic States after the Prague and Copenhagen Summits" at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). Participants at the seminar, run by the Director General of the Institute, Thierry de Montbrial, and the Special Advisor to the Institute, Dominique Moïsi, included the President of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet, President of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee, former Prime Minister of France Edouard Balladur, French Parliament representatives to the Convention, Hubert Haenel from the Senate and Pierre Lequiller from the Assembly, President of the French-Baltic States Friendship Group, Denis Badré, Ambassador of France to Latvia, Michel Foucher, and representatives of the Foreign Ministries of Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden. The discussions focused on the geopolitical changes within the continent of Europe, which follow from the decisions taken on the enlargement of NATO and the EU, particularly assessing the role of the Baltic States in the enlarged Europe. In the evening of the same day, the Ministers gave a joint press conference on the topic of the seminar. On 29 April, the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic States participated in the seminar for French entrepreneurs organised by the French Foreign Trade Centre (CFCE) entitled "The Baltic States Already in the European Union". The guest of honour at the seminar was Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia, Ainars Slesers. The Ministers spoke about the macroeconomic development and cooperation perspectives in the Baltic Region and listened to the speeches by French investors and entrepreneurs telling of their experience in cooperating with Latvia. On 26 April Ms Kalniete, with the participation of the President of the Association "Our Europe", former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, other representatives to the Convention, Director General for Enlargement with the European Commission, Eneko Landaburu, and the Ambassadors of Germany and Great Britain to France, took part in a seminar organised by the French European Movement, "International Crisis: What Consequence for Europe?"
(end of text)
|
