At the informal meeting (Gymnich) EU’s Foreign Affairs Ministers discussed Libya and Ukraine, but also met their counterparts from the candidate countries and discussed the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy, High Representative for Foreign Policy and Serucity Affairs Federica Mogherini said.

“This morning we started the meeting sharing the information we got from Mali, from Bamako. Last night there was an attack, with several victims, among those some European Union citizens. We all express our condolences to the loved ones of all the victims of this attack. And a special thought for our colleagues because one of the victims, a Belgian citizen, was  a security officer at the European Union Delegation in Bamako,” Mogherini said after the two-day meeting.

First day the ministers discussed Libya and Ukraine, “the two main security – not only security – challenges we have in our immediate neighbourhood both East and South, and we stressed how important it is that we work together, united on all dimensions of our neighbourhood.”

The meeting continue Saturday with the Foreign Ministers of the candidate countries.

“We discussed with them the common foreign policy and regional challenges as well as the opportunities we have, following up on our discussions yesterday on Libya and on Ukraine. We discussed also the situation in their region, in the Western Balkans, around Turkey, and we touched on the enlargement process a little bit,” Mogherini said.

The ministers also had a discussion on the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy, “stressing the need for having the process of consultation with full ownership not only of the European Union Member States and institutions but also of our partners in the East and in the South,” she added.

“We will have now some a broad consultation on what has worked, what needs to be improved, in our partnership with our neighbourhood, because it’s very clear that the situation both in the East and South of the European Union, is posing some question marks to all of us, and we feel it is time to develop stronger political partnerships with countries in our region,” Mogherini said.

The ministers also focused a lot on the Riga Eastern Partnership summit that is coming up in a few months.