Ukraine is priority: Latvian FM names topics for today's EU Council meeting
Assistance to Ukraine remains a priority for Latvia, which allocates up to 1 per cent of the country's GDP to support it, so today Latvia will take an active part in discussing the Ukrainian Reform and Recovery Plan within the framework of the Foreign Affairs Council.
This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže in Brussels today before the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs and Development Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"There are several important topics on the agenda of the meeting today. The first is assistance to Ukraine, which is also a priority for Latvia. We are currently allocating about 1 per cent of GDP to help Ukraine, providing it with a broad support package. The ministers will look at the Ukrainian plan and the Ukrainian Fund, at reforms, at Ukraine's ability to support itself and also to implement reforms with a view to future enlargement - its ability to fulfil the obligations of a member state in the future, as well as (to support) the functioning of the whole country," said the Latvian foreign minister.
Answering journalists' questions about the attitude to Vladimir Putin's "inauguration", which is to take place today in Moscow, the Latvian government representative stressed that no European country should take part in this event.
"Our message is very clear. This is the head of an aggressor state that has violated the main provisions of the UN Charter. This is a leader who is being prosecuted by the ICC (International Criminal Court) for war crimes, against whom the prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant. Therefore, no country should participate at all, not even at the level of heads of (diplomatic) missions," Braže stressed.
As reported, today, 7 May, the EU Foreign Affairs (Development) Council is taking place in Brussels, one of the main topics of which is the consideration of the Ukrainian Recovery and Reform Plan presented by the Ukrainian government as part of the implementation of the Ukraine Fund, a broad financial assistance package for Ukraine in the amount of 50 billion euros for 2024-2027. This assistance is conditional on Ukraine's continued democratic transformation on its path to EU membership.