Russia – EU expert consultations held on EU Enlargement

Submitted on Thu, 12/23/2021 - 15:20

On 17 December 2021 regular Russia – EU expert consultations on EU Enlargement (COELA) were held in Brussels within the framework of Russia – EU Political Dialogue, via videoconference.

Yuri Pilipson, Director of the 4th European department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led the Russian delegation. The EU team was headed by Jernej Müller, Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia.

A detailed exchange of views on the situation in the EU enlargement process took place. The Russian side stressed the importance of this process not to lead to creating new dividing lines in Europe and that for candidate countries and potential candidates joining the EU should not be subject to imposition of artificial barriers to further development of their bilateral relations with Russia.

An agreement was reached to continue this format of consultations.