Athens , 6 May 2009

Foreign Minister Ms. Dora Bakoyannis together with Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Yannis Valinakis will accompany Prime Minister Mr. Kostas Karamanlis to Prague, where they will attend the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit to be held on 7 May 2009.

The Prague Summit is expected to officially launch the Eastern Partnership, the new framework of cooperation between the EU and its Eastern partners. The Summit will be attended by representatives of the EU 27 member states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The EaP includes new measures towards supporting social and economic development in the abovementioned 6 countries, through cooperation on a bilateral and multilateral level. It is expected to include four platforms of cooperation on democratic and good governance, economic integration and convergence with EU policies, energy security and cooperation at the level of civil society.