TALLINN, March 06./ITAR-TASS/. It is believed in Estonia that the north of Europe could be one of the directions in which the European Union could spread. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet expressed this view during a conversation with his Icelandic counterpart Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, who arrived for a meeting of foreign ministers of Baltic and North European countries and of states of the Visegrad group that opens in Narva, the press service of the Estonian Foreign Ministry reports.
“Estonia welcomes further enlargement of the EU in Northern Europe.” Paet said. He believes European unity assumes special importance in light of the social and political challenges of the present and of crises, such as the one in Ukraine.
Estonia, for instance, would like Iceland to be a member of the European Union. Paet expressed the hope that Iceland would resume the negotiations about accession to the European Union. But then the Estonian foreign minister realizes that it is for Iceland to make the final decision. “The Icelandic people themselves must decide whether or not to continue the negotiations with the EU,” he said.
At the working session due in Narva on Friday, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Iceland and another ten countries will discuss issues of the foreign policy of the European Union in the eastern direction, including relations with Russia and the situation in Ukraine and in the Western Balkans.