EU FMs discuss situation in Syria

BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (KUNA) -- EU foreign ministers began Thursday afternoon a two-day informal meeting in the Bulgarian capital Sofia to discuss developments in Syria, the Balkans and Korea.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini said the EU is preparing the second Brussels conference for the future of Syria and the region in April.
"From the humanitarian point of view the war is still going on in the country," she said and added that she discussed Syria with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a couple of days ago in Kuwait.
Mogherini said that yesterday in Kuwait she chaired with the UN Secretary-General the conference on the reconstruction of Iraq "where the EU is a leading player not only from the humanitarian but from the political and security point of view." The ministers will also discuss North Korea she said adding that there were encouraging steps at the Olympic games in South Korea.
On his part, Sigmar Gabriel, German foreign minister, said "we have an important meeting today, at its core it revolves around what is happening in Syria, what Europe can and must do about it, in order to help not only the political process to develop, but also to stop the military escalation in the north of the country." The second big topic is the integration of the Western Balkan countries, I just came back from Serbia, the situation in Kosovo is sometimes difficult, and today we will discuss it openly, he said.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Foreign Minister, said "we will have an informal meeting on the sidelines of which the question on Syria is omnipresent." "The drama continues, we are in a civil war and now there is a risk of regional crisis which means that Geneva process has to restart immediately and that we get in a transitional political phase which is not the case today. We wish that the Geneva Process restarts so that we regain hope" he said.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, said they are going to have a series of important conversations in the next few hours about Syria, where we have to continue to drive the negotiation process at the UN.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, whose country holds the current EU Presidency, said the situation in Syria, although progress has been made, is by far not peaceful.
"What is really important for the coalition and for the whole union is that we act unified, that we act together and in a organized manner. As for the issue of chemical weapons, they (Syrian) deny that there are any. Unfortunately, the international analysis and evidence gives us a reason to believe that the situation is different. Still, it is very important that we continue to work towards the stabilization of the situation," she added. (end) nk.mt