Foreign minister: Eastern Partnership needs EU's attentiton

Prague, Feb 22 (CTK) - The Czech Republic will host talks of foreign ministers from six former Soviet republics participating in the Eastern Partnership programme, the Visegrad Group, the Baltic states and Denmark as it wants more attention to be paid to the programme in the EU, the Foreign Ministry said.

"It (Eastern Partnership) deserves more attention," Deputy Foreign Minister Jiri Schneider said.

The EU has been focusing on other regions like the Arab countries, most recently Syria.

The meeting of countries from Eastern Europe and its vicinity will be held in Prague on March 5 and also attended by EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and European commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy, Stefan Fuele.

Denmark currently heads the Council of the European Union. The Visegrad Group comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The Eastern Partnership comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are former Soviet republics, too.

The Eastern Partnership was launched in Prague in 2009 during the Czech Republic's EU presidency in order to enhance EU cooperation with these six countries.

Its latest meeting was organised in Warsaw last September. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg then mainly talked about Ukraine having to observe the rules of democracy in connection with the trial of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko who is now in prison.

Apart from Ukraine, Belarus has been criticised for the repression against opposition leaders and the practices of the Alexander Lukashenko's regime.

Belarusian media wrote on Tuesday that Sergei Martynov, the country's foreign minister, was "not yet" invited to the Prague meeting. Czech diplomacy dismissed the information.