On Thursday (18 June)in the framework of the Eastern Partnership leaders' meeting which took place via video conference, EU leaders discussed with their six Eastern partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine - the response to COVID-19, the consequences of the crisis, the strategic partnership and its future.
The leaders stressed the importance of solidarity at the time of the COVID-19 crisis, including the EU's substantial support to address the impact of the outbreak in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region.
They reconfirmed their commitment and the high importance they attach to the Eastern Partnership as a foreign policy priority and highlighted different areas of cooperation such as trade, visa-free or visa facilitation agreements.
Speaking at a virtual press conference after the video conference, the president of the European council, Charles Michel, said that during the meeting the leaders "expressed the political will to continue building an area of shared democracy, prosperity and stability, anchored in our shared values, through a rules-based international order and international law".
It was also agreed that a physical summit will take place in Brussels in March 2021, during which the leaders will endorse five policy priorities in a joint declaration.
source: commonspace.eu with Consilium.europa.eu
