The Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council together with European Commission is to host the first Eastern Partnership Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meeting on October 7–8 in Luxembourg. Representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine will join EU ministers to discuss further reforms and cooperation on justice, interior and migration issues.
The first day of the meeting, when the participants will also be joined by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, will focus on reforms seeking more independence and efficiency of the judiciary, judicial cooperation on the multilateral and regional levels as well as recent legislative and policy developments in the area of justice, including on data protection and fighting drugs.
On the second day, ministers will discuss the findings of the panel on fighting corruption and share views on EU policy on fighting serious organized and transnational crime, as well as on various aspects of fighting cybercrime. The European Commission will present the state of play in the visa liberalisation dialogues and on visa facilitation and readmission agreements.
Development of the Eastern Partnership is among key priorities of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council. In addition to the main event, the Vilnius summit in November, a meeting of the Eastern Partnership transport ministers will take place in Luxembourg on October 10 and a number of other events will be organized.
The Lithuanian Presidency seeks Eastern Partnership Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meetings to be held on a regular basis to monitor progress and give political guidance to their cooperation on this thematic dimension within the Eastern Partnership.
