On 8 December 2009, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko  took part in the first  meeting of the EU foreign policy initiative Eastern  Partnership at foreign ministers level that was held in Brussels.

Along with delegations of EU member states, partner countries and the European Commission, the meeting was attended by representatives of European Parliament, The Committee of the Regions, European Economic and Social Committee, European Investment Bank, EBRD.

The ministers discussed the implementation of the Eastern Partnership in the light of attainment to its goals as set by the Joint Declaration  of the heads of states and governments at the Prague inauguration  Summit  of 7 May 2009.

In his speech the foreign minister of Ukraine noted that despite the innovation dimension of the interaction was still being shaped, it had already been possible to develop and approve working programs of 4 thematic platforms. It is a distinct evidence of dynamic development of Eastern Partnership multilateral dimension, the minister stressed.

 Having more branched and dynamic relations with the EU, Kyiv will stress upon the bilateral component of “Eastern Partnership”.In this regard, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine  called on the EU  to demonstrate an active approach to enhance the practical meaning of  the Eastern  Partnership bilateral elements that could contribute to giving an added value to Ukraine-EU relations.

Another possibility to provide for such an “added value”, according to the Minister, would be establishing of an accessible credit financing mechanisms aimed at large-scale infrastructure projects in different fields covered by this dimension of the EU foreign policy.

The head of Ukrainian delegation stressed that the priority for Ukraine today is to launch concrete projects in the framework of Comprehensive institution building program as soon as possible.  He noted the Ukrainian party had already presented its proposals to the EU.

Mr. Poroshenko underlined that success of Eastern Partnership fulfillment lies with keeping it flexible in the context of bilateral elements content-filling as well as in the level of each partner country participation in its work.

During the meeting the Foreign Minister of Ukraine suggested to host in Ukraine a meeting of Friends of Eastern Partnership group in the next year.

In the framework of the event, Mr Poroshenko had talks with Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, UK, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova, The Slovak Republic, Finland. He also talked to heads of delegations of Estonia, Georgia, France and Germany.

It was agreed to hold a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine in the first half of February next year on joint projects implementation within the framework of Eastern Partnership, including  project of Eurasian oil transport  corridor.