Informal EU Political Directors Meeting took place in Sofia
16 January 2018 News
The first Informal EU Political Directors Meeting under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union took place on 15 and 16 January 2018 in Sofia.
The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs of the European External Action Service – Mr Jean-Christophe Belliard, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria– Ms Emilia Kraleva.
The meeting was focused on the Western Balkans and was attended by the EU Special Representative for Kosovo and Head of the Delegation of the EU – Ms Nataliya Apostolova and the Director of the European External Action Service – Ms Angelina Eichrost, who is responsible for the region. The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, Mr Hoyt Yee, took part in the discussion too. Bulgaria was highly encouraged and received great support by the member states for pointing out the Western Balkans as one of the main priorities during the Presidency.
The political directors reviewed also the EU’s foreign policy priorities for 2018, the relations with Russia and, together with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process – Mr Nikolay Mladenov, they discussed the situation in the Middle East.