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Foreign Minister Liimets at the GAC: we look forward to the quick uptake of the EU digital green certificate
12. May 2021 - 10:40
Yesterday 11 May, Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets attended the General Affairs Council of the European Union in Brussels. The ministers discussed preparations for the 24-25 May European Council that will focus on COVID-19, climate policy and relations with Russia. At the General Affairs Council, the ministers discussed in detail the response to the spread of COVID-19, the organisation of the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Union’s enlargement policy.
Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese has called for EU help with tackling migration flows, saying that it is necessary “to carry out structural interventions in the management system of the phenomenon within the European Union.”
The EU must active “concrete and solid solidarity mechanisms, including emergency ones, on the model of those envisaged in Malta in 2019, as well as a shared strategy for the fight against human traffickers and the fight against trafficking and illegal immigration,” Lamorgese said via video link during the conference on the management of migratory flows in Lisbon, organised by the Portuguese EU Council Presidency on Tuesday (11 May).
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Facing pressure from EU members, the Bulgarian ambassador to the EU explained on Tuesday (11 May) to the EU ministers his country’s decision to
veto the start of neighbouring North Macedonia’s accession negotiations.
Dimitar Tzantchev represented
Bulgaria at the General Affairs Council, the EU27 ministerial format which decides EU enlargement-related issues, while on the same day President Rumen Radev appointed a caretaker Bulgarian government before snap elections on 11 July.
Bulgaria vetoed the decision to open EU membership talks with North Macedonia last November, a move which indirectly also affected Albania, another Western Balkans candidate which has advanced on its EU path in tandem with Skopje.
The preparation of the next extraordinary European Council and the discussion on the coordination of the EU’s response to COVID 19 are the two high points of the General Affairs Council (GAC) meeting to be held via video conference tomorrow, Tuesday, in Brussels.
This meeting will be chaired by the Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, under the scope of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The Ministers will begin with the preparatory work for the extraordinary European Council, which will be held on 25 May 2021. They will then proceed with a discussion on the state of play regarding the coordination of the EU’s response to COVID-19.