Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and EEAS Deputy Secretary General Helga Schmid will travel to Kiev to participate in the seventh Eastern Partnership (EaP) Informal Partnership Dialogue on 11-12 July.

Hosted by Ukraine, the meeting brings together Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Economy of the six EaP partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine) for informal high-level discussions on further development of the Eastern Partnership and on international issues.

The Informal EaP dialogue will give participants an opportunity to reflect on the progress made across the key areas of cooperation agreed at the Riga summit last year. They will discuss the implementation of the renewed European neighbourhood policy and will exchange views on ways of enhancing the effectiveness of the EaP, in view of the next EaP summit foreseen for 2017. The Ministers are also expected to address current international and global security issues, in particular, those having an impact on the region. 

Ministers of Economy will engage in a discussion on economic reforms to realise the potential of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).  They will reflect on policies and actions required to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and higher value added production. The Ministers will discuss the implementation of recommendations stemming from the Small Business Act for Europe Assessment and the new EU4Business initiative. They will be joined by the OECD Deputy Secretary General Mari Kiviniemi.

The Informal Partnership Dialogues are held twice a year and hosted in turn by the EaP partner countries.  They allow for the open, informal exchange of views between the partner countries and the EU high level representatives on foreign policy and sectoral cooperation areas.