E. VENIZELOS: Following the bilateral meetings I had today with my colleague the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Kristian Vigenin, and immediately afterwards with my colleague the Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean, we scheduled a trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, here in Thessaloniki. This is the first such meeting since the one held in November 2012.
This trilateral configuration has been established and has functioned successfully to date, but today we do not have just the meeting between the three countries. We have a meeting of three presidencies. Because Greece holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Bulgaria holds the Chairmanship of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), and Romania holds the Chairmanship of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP)
It is an added pleasure for me to welcome and host two dear colleagues, with whom I also belong to the same ideological and political family in Europe, and this has its significance just a few weeks before the elections for the new European Parliament.
Our trilateral meeting concluded with a joint statement from the three of us – the three Ministers – which will be issued and includes, in detail, our common positions on all pending international, regional and trilateral issues.
You will allow me to make mention of just a few points. The three of us share the same outlook regarding the Euroatlantic perspective of all the Western Balkan countries. Greece and, obviously, the other two countries want and are pursuing the participation of Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen area. This is something of great importance for our region.
Of particular concern to us is the matter of migration flows, the issue of irregular and illegal migration, and we believe that this must always be a main priority of European policy; that there must be equitable burden-sharing on this issue among the European countries.
Regarding the energy sector, we reiterated on the trilateral level what we already stated in our bilateral meetings. Connectivity is the foundation of our cooperation, with the aim of an integrated regional energy market, because what is important to us is that there be security and diversification of energy sources and of energy transit routes, and because all of our countries need to capitalize on our energy resources.
All three countries back the need for a comprehensive European maritime policy, which is a priority for the Hellenic Presidency, and in this context we support the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative. We had the opportunity to host the relevant meeting in Athens a few months ago.
We express the hope that, by the end of the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the European Union, we will have the opportunity to sign association agreements with Moldova and Georgia, and that we will have moved our neighbour Albania ahead to the status of candidate country for accession to the European Union.
All three countries welcome the progress that has been made by Montenegro on its Atlantic Alliance accession perspective. We are very pleased that we will have the opportunity to meet not just in the context of the organs and processes of the European Union, but also, on 19 June, at the BSEC Ministerial Meeting – at which Bulgaria will pass the chairmanship on to Greece – and at the SEECP Ministerial in Bucharest, on 20 June.
Once again, I thank my colleagues for the very warm, friendly and productive meeting we had, and I ask them to take the floor.
K VIGENIN: Thank you very much, Minister Venizelos. First of all I would like to thank you and the Greek side for the excellent organization and the preparation of this meeting.
Our assessment is that this format of trilateral cooperation works very well and is very useful and has additional added value because of this, I would call it, coincidence of the three Presidencies, and this was and still is an excellent opportunity to raise even higher on the European agenda the important issues that we need to cope with for our region and for our countries respectively.
In addition to that I would like to mention something which we have discussed in our meeting and actually agreed upon, it is the idea to further extend our trilateral cooperation, not only at the level of Foreign Ministers, but also at the level of other Ministries, so that we can go deeper and achieve a more substantial discussion on a number of sectorial issues.
I believe, together with our colleagues, that in this we will create additional added value for our trilateral cooperation.
Otherwise, I fully agree with everything that was presented by Minister Venizelos, and I am sure that this trilateral meeting, together with the tomorrow’s Ministerial meeting of the European Union with the Western Balkans, we further show the importance of the cooperation and joint work of the European Union member states in the region to achieve the goals which are important for the whole region, especially for the Western Balkans.
T. CORLATEAN: First of all I want to thank once again Minister Venizelos for the warm hospitality, for the excellent organization, and both colleagues for an excellent meeting, with extremely valuable trilateral form of cooperation.
It is a trilateral, a regional and a European formula of cooperation, and having the same interests, the same positions and the same initiatives which is very good.
Of course I fully subscribe to the comments that were made by the Greek and the Bulgarian Foreign Ministers. We adopted the joint statements, we supported all those domains, starting with the necessity to enlarge different domains of cooperation in this trilateral format with the economic aspects, with the judiciary, with the chambers of commerce, with tourism, because this is beneficial. This is economic and also very beneficial for our economies and for our people.
We have discussed, and I want to thank the Greek Government, Minister Venizelos, and the Greek Presidency of the European Union for the constant support granted to Romania and to Bulgaria for the process of accession to the Schengen area.
For us it is extremely important and counts on the support under the Greek Presidency to advance, if possible, with the first positive decision.
Also, Romania all those years, was a very strong supporter of both European Union and NATO enlargement with the countries of the Balkans.
For NATO we are strongly in favor in supporting the Montenegro’s accession at the next NATO summit, in September, in the United Kingdom, for the European enlargement process for all the countries in our region, in southeast Europe, but particularly because in June we will have a report of the European Commission concerning the status of the progress of Albania.
We are strongly in favor of granting the status of candidate for Albania, based on the report of the Commission, and this will imply a political decision of the member states.
Briefly, just to mention our satisfaction and my satisfaction at a very substantial discussion. It is a proof of solidarity between three Presidencies, which is happening for the first time. Three Presidencies at the same time of this trilateral is a proof of regional European solidarity, but also it is a proof of political and ideological solidarity at an important European moment.
Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Tony Dimitrova, Bulgaria National Television. My question is about the crisis in Ukraine, all three countries, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, have ethnic minorities in Ukraine. Did you discuss this issue and maybe come up with a common statement?
K. VIGENIN: As you know, we have a working dinner afterwards. In the short time, we couldn’t discuss all the details. As you will see, we have a joint view which is in the joint statement on Ukraine, but as regards the minorities, this is an issue that we only mentioned, we will continue the discussion over dinner.
Of course we can only reconfirm that we are worried about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, and we will do our best, including at the Council of Ministers, at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, to try and find further steps that the European Union can take in order to stabilize the country, to strength it, and of course to further protect the rights of minorities in Ukraine.
Mr. CORLATEAN: Just a brief comment on the bilateral, the first meeting, we had the opportunity to discuss with my Greek colleague and friend the latest developments in Ukraine.
And in any case we are going to make the last assessments on Monday during the next Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. And to take the conclusions, apparently there are some important events and developments related from the position that was expressed by the Russian President.
If things will go in the direction of a political process, of an inclusive process of dialogue within Ukraine, while respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, this will be a good direction that we can support. But we have to see exactly the concrete details.
On the minority aspects, for Romania it is extremely important, because in Ukraine there are around 400,000 ethnic Romanians living there, and of course we have the situation on the level of protection and identity and preservation of the identity – it is extremely important, being loyal citizens of Ukraine, but they need granting of rights according to the European standards.
This is what all the time we asked the new leadership in Kiev, and we encourage the adoption of legislation, the European legislation and standards, and to implement the standards for all the national minorities living in Ukraine, including, in our case, for the Romanian minority living in Ukraine.
This doesn’t mean, at the same time, that there is any right in the international law for any country to invoke the right of interfering through also military actions in support of the minority of the co-nationals. This right doesn’t exist in international law; it is forbidden. And this is totally fundamentally different, and we condemn the intervention.
Thank you.
E. VENIZELOS: Just one additional remark.
The European policy and our own policy on Ukraine is always a policy of principles. The first principle is the respect of sovereignty and also of the territorial integrity of the country.
The second principle is the principle of inclusiveness. The participation of all the political and social forces, the participation of all the Ukrainian regions, all the ethnic groups, all the linguistic groups is something vital for the future of the country, for the stabilization of the situation, and also for the avoidance of civil war.
Any step toward to the de-escalation of the situation is something positive, something productive, and we are ready to welcome officially and publicly these type of steps.
The protection of the Greek-origin ethnic group in Ukraine, as you understand, is something vital for us, always within the framework of international law and always within the framework of the existing resolutions of the United Nations.
Journalist: [Mr. Botonis] Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, I want to refer you to reports that there are members of the Greek community who want to return – members of their families want to return to Greece. Do you have any data at the Foreign Ministry? And whether there is a plan if things get worse. We all hope things don’t get worse, of course.
E. VENIZELOS: The Greek government and the Foreign Ministry in particular, in cooperation with the co-competent Ministries, are continuously monitoring the situation in Ukraine on an ongoing, daily basis.
Our Embassy in Kiev and the two Consulates General we have, in Mariupol and Odessa, in close cooperation with the Greek associations and the Federation of Greek Associations, have a complete picture of the situation and full control. And we are prepared at any given time to provide any and all necessary, practical assistance.
So far, however, applications for the return of persons of Greek origin have not been submitted to the Greek Consulates General. We are prepared to provide any and all assistance, but the issue is not for populations to be moved. The issue is for the situation to be stabilized, to become secure; for all the citizens of Ukraine, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic group, to have a sense of security. A sense of security for everyone is the only foundation for a definitive and viable solution in Ukraine.
May 7, 2014