As the vacation month of August draws to a close, so does the lean period, or rather semi-shut down, of the European Institutions. During August activity at the European Institutions grinds to a halt and only a skeleton staff is kept to deal with urgent matters. A glance at the calendar of the Lithuanian Presidency shows a blank space for August 2013.

However, soon the diplomats and officials of the EU Institutions and the Permanent Representations will flow back into Brussels and settle down to work as EU activity rapidly accelerates to top gear in the beginning of September.

The Lithuanian Presidency has scheduled the informal meetings of most Council configurations for September, beginning with the General Affairs Council on 29 – 30 August and ending with that for Transport, Telecommunications and Energy on 19 – 20 September. 

Among the informal meetings scheduled for September there is that of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Vilnius on 6 – 7 September.  A traditional aura surrounds informal meetings of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and they are usually referred to as Gymnich meetings. The namesake is Gymnich Castle in Erfstadt, near Bonn, the guest house of the former West German government, where the first informal Foreign Affairs Ministers’ meeting took place in 1974.

The 1974 Gymnich meeting was a landmark in the development of European Political Cooperation (EPC), the precursor of today’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The member states were then taking the first hesitant steps towards building cooperation in foreign and security policy outside the Treaties, within the EPC framework, since these areas were still jealously guarded as belonging exclusively to the national domain.

At Gymnich Castle the decision was taken to institutionalize an informal meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers under each successive Presidency in order to outbid the inhibitions and reluctance of certain member states to put foreign policy issues on the Council’s formal agenda.  Within the agreed Gymnich format, with no aids and note-takers present, the foreign ministers can engage in a free and in-depth discussion on current international affairs without drawing formal conclusions. This format continues to be applied today, providing guarantees for usefully frank discussion.

According to the press release issued by the Lithuanian Presidency, the Gymnich meeting of 6 - 7 September in Vilnius, “is intended to discuss, in an informal environment, the current issues and priorities of EU foreign policy as well as issues of EU security strategy”.

Therefore one can expect the Foreign Ministers to discuss the Middle East Peace Process, and the situations in Egypt and Syria, and in other countries in the Southern Mediterranean, particularly Libya and Tunisia, where the danger of serious instability still lurks.

These are all issues of direct interest to Malta since the continuing instability in the Southern Mediterranean is affecting our livelihood by creating difficulties for our economic growth, especially for our exports and investments, and by acerbating the flow of irregular migrants. Moreover, the chaotic situations in Syria and Egypt, together with the on-going instability across North Africa, compounded by lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, can easily develop into a wider regional conflagration dragging in the United States and Russia and seriously upsetting the EU’s security strategy.

At the Gymnich meeting in Vilnius Malta is expected to take an active part in the discussions on these current Mediterranean security issues, since Malta professes a pro-active Mediterranean vocation, placing peace and security in the Mediterranean at the top of its foreign policy agenda, and has cultivated traditional good neighbourly relations with the Arab North African countries. Malta, acting as facilitator for the Southern Mediterranean countries in the EU, should take the opportunity of the informal Gymnich set-up to put forward fresh ideas for revamping the EU’s Mediterranean Policy and for reforming the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM) to make it a more effective vehicle for the implementation of the EU’s security strategy in the region.

A more specific target for Malta should be to ensure further political and resource engagement by the EU in Libya, especially in the area of border management.  In my contribution to the Malta Independent of 29 July 2013, I submitted a number of ideas about Malta’s role as facilitator for Libya in the EU, and I put forward some concrete proposals that may realistically be implemented by the EU. Among them were: the urgent need to integrate Libya in regional cooperation projects undertaken by the UFM; the urgent need to conclude a simplified trade and cooperation agreement with Libya to provide a legal basis for EU – Libya cooperation, and the launching of an EU Justice mission for Libya, similar to the one in Kosovo, in order to address urgent criminal justice challenges and advise on judicial reforms.  The Gymnich format presents an ideal opportunity for Malta’s Foreign Minister to test these proposals with his colleagues.

With regard to the situations in Egypt and Syria, which are bound to dominate discussions, Malta should advise against any proposed measure that may provoke either side to further radicalize its position. Malta should insist on urgent humanitarian action in support of the civilian population in war affected areas and fleeing the conflict. One may perhaps suggest that the EU needs to intensify its active diplomacy aimed at building an international consensus for dealing more decisively with the conflict in these two countries, in particular a rapprochement between the US and Russia on Syria.

With regard to the Middle East Peace Process, most probably the consensual position of the Foreign Ministers would be to support the current US brokered peace talks. In this context one should express one’s concern about actions, by either side, that may derail the peace talks, such as further settlements by Israel and provocative rocket launching by the Palestinians.

At Gymnich meetings the foreign ministers usually explain informally their positions on sensitive, and sometimes divisive, topics that are on the agenda of subsequent formal meetings under the current Presidency. The Lithuanian Presidency calendar includes six, possibly seven, other meetings of the Foreign Affairs Ministers. In my next contribution I intend to present an overview of the foreign policy agenda of the Lithuanian Presidency, and discuss the issues that will be taken up at these upcoming Foreign Affairs Ministers’ meetings, particularly those issues that are the most relevant to Malta.

With regard to the Gymnich meeting of 6 – 7 September, whose format is characterized by an open agenda, informality and no published conclusions, my advice is that Malta should not hesitate to put forward new ideas on those situations where it has special interests and expertise.  However, it is also important to remember that other EU member states, either because of their traditional foreign relations patterns or because of their geopolitical situations or simply because they are big and have extensive and sophisticated intelligence services, may be in a better position than Malta to understand specific issues in international relations.  Therefore, while it is good for Malta to be pro-active and make its voice heard, it is always wise to be prudent and be prepared to listen and learn.

Tarcisio Zammit is a former Ambassador of Malta to Belgium and Malta’s representative to the EU’s Political and Security Committee