Informal meeting of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Gymnich) in Bratislava

Press release 158/2016
2 September 2016

The informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers (Gymnich) will be held in Bratislava on 2–3 September. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The Foreign Ministers' discussions will be chaired by High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini. The meeting will focus on Turkey, the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the European Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, as well as ways of preventing and countering terrorism and radicalisation.

The Foreign Ministers will discuss the situation in Turkey after the attempted coup on 15 July. In addition, an informal meeting will be held with the Turkish Minister of European Affairs.

The topics on the agenda also include the implementation of the Minsk agreements and current developments in the conflict in and around Ukraine. In addition, the Ministers will discuss the implementation of the European Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, which was published in June 2016.

The Foreign Ministers' Gymnich meeting will also deal with the question of how to prevent and counter terrorism and radicalisation. The EU candidate countries will participate in this discussion, where the focus will be on joint challenges and opportunities of cooperation.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Soini will have bilateral discussions with his Romanian and Moldovan counterparts.

Inquiries: Riikka Taivassalo, Special Adviser to Foreign Minister Soini, tel. +358 46 923 4581 and Sari Rautio, European Correspondent, tel. +358 295 351 534.

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are in the format [email protected].