The EU should have a realistic and sober role in the world promoting its values and interests through comprehensive and aligned policies ranging from the economy, technology, climate action to democracy and human rights, Foreign and European Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo told EU Foreign Ministers in France.  

Minister Bartolo is attending the Informal Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union in Brest, France, called “Gymnich” after the place where it was first held in 1974. He said  efforts need to continue to find at least a minimum common ground to live together instead of more confrontation and escalation that can only bring catastrophe.
The meeting started off with a joint session with EU Ministers of Defence on the EU’s Strategic Compass where discussions focused mainly on key political issues such as cyber security and hybrid threats and also to give guidance to further work within the Council to tackle the ongoing global threats and challenges to the EU.

Foreign Ministers also had the opportunity to discuss the ongoing security situation in Eastern Europe and how the EU and its Member States can work together, with strategic partners like the US and organisations such as the OSCE.

Minister Evarist Bartolo said that we must work hard to have a European Security Architecture that will take in consideration the interests of all European countries to live together and not threaten each other while retaining their sovereignty.

Ministers also had a session on EU-China relations in order to coordinate responses to the country’s role in multilateral fora and its relations with EU member states.

The French Presidency hosted a lunch in the presence of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki, and the Senegalese Foreign Minister, H.E. Aïssata Tall, to discuss the future of the relations between the EU and the African Union ahead of the Summit of 17-18 February 2022.

Minister Bartolo also had  a bilateral meeting with EU Commissioner for the Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, to discuss the ongoing situation in the Mediterranean, particularly Libya as well as the migrant situation in the Central Mediterranean.