Jim Murphy

General Affairs and External Relations Council, and the Informal European Council

The Foreign Secretary and I represented the UK in Monday's meeting of the EU's General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg. This is the regular meeting of all EU Foreign Ministers (and Ministers for Europe) at which we discuss current foreign policy issues. The aim is to agree EU positions on the major foreign policy issues, as joint EU action can be much more effective than 27 countries acting independently (although if we cannot agree we can still go our own way, as every country has a veto). It was a busy and productive meeting, with useful debate and decisions on a number of issues, including Burma, Iraq and Zimbabwe.

On Iraq, there was strong support from EU Foreign Ministers for the ideas which we've put forward with France and Sweden for developing the EU's role. It's clear that our EU partners share our determination to assist the UN Mission in Iraq deliver on its mandate and to develop deeper political and economic ties with Iraq. The EU is already actively involved in the UN's work to assist the Iraqi government and supports regional dialogue: it will be pursuing this further over the coming months.

The Council approved a package of sanctions against Burma, including targeted restrictive measures on imports and exports. These will increase direct pressure on those responsible for the recent appalling crack-downs. On Zimbabwe, we discussed sending an EU envoy to report on the situation on the ground ahead of the EU-Africa summit in December.

We also discussed the EU Reform Treaty for around an hour - the Portuguese Presidency of the EU wanted it to be a "stocktake", leaving the detailed discussion for the meeting in Lisbon later in the week. On Thursday, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary will go to Lisbon to take part in a European Council meeting, where the Portuguese Presidency will lead a discussion on the EU Reform Treaty amongst Heads of State and Foreign Ministers from all 27 EU member states. The PM has been clear all along: our red lines must be fully respected in the final treaty text.

In gaps between Council sessions I met the Danish Foreign Minister and Swedish and Luxembourg Europe Ministers. Each EU country has their own perspective on how things should be done, and I would not pretend that everyone is happy with the tough negotiating stance that we have pursued. But there was no suggestion that anyone would try to unpick the good deal we have achieved. So going into the meeting on Thursday and Friday in Lisbon David Miliband and I are confident our red lines will be respected.

Posted at 20:00 17 October 2007 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[3]