EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 14 March 2011

A 103/11

Remarks by High Representative, Catherine Ashton, after the meeting

with Secretary General of Arab League, Amr Moussa1

First if all it is a great privilege to see you again and a great pleasure to be in Egypt and at the Arab
League. I came here because I wanted to stress the importance and the value that we have put on our
relationship with the Arab League by debriefing Secretary General directly after the European
Council and the Foreign Affairs Council of last week.
It is important to stress again that we see our work in this region as a collaborative approach with the
Arab League and with the countries of this region. We want to be partners in seeing a future transition
with democracy, economic growth and development at the root of what is happening.
The second thing, as I've said, I came to do was to talk about what had happened at the European
Council and to specifically describe the key issues that we discussed in terms of support for the
region.
They fall into three groups: briefly, resources – the money, the ability that we have to be able to
support the economies here and to support economic growth and jobs, both through greater
investment and also through grants. That also applies to support for civil society in the pursuit of
democracy and of human rights and freedom.
Secondly: mobility – the ability for students and business people, for example, to be able to benefit
from greater access to Europe. We are very conscious of the young population of this region and the
educational opportunities that perhaps could be offered to them.

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P R E S S
FOR FURTHER DETAILS:
Michael Mann +32 498 999 780 - +32 2 299 97 80 - Michael.Mann@ec.europa.eu
Maja Kocijancic +32 498 984 425 - +32 2 298 65 70 - Maja.Kocijancic@ec.europa.eu
COMM-SPP-HRVP-ASHTON@ec.europa.eu
www.eeas.europa.eu

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And thirdly: market access – the capacity to be able to ensure that there is good access to the markets
of Europe, not just in terms of opening markets but also ensuring that businesses can take advantage
of those markets.
And that was the basis of the paper that was put to the European Council, the heads of state and
government, and endorsed by them on Friday, and I wanted to make sure that everyone was fully
aware of that.
One of the proposals being discussed is how we all work collaboratively together in terms of the
African Union, the Arab League and the EU. And we've been discussing from my area, foreign
policy, ways in which we can be better able to talk between foreign ministers and the Arab League to
make sure that there is a greater understanding of what we're trying to do, and more importantly, a
greater understanding by us of what is needed. So, as well as the discussions about a broader summit-
style meeting which were discussed at the European Union, we have also wanted to discuss the
practical ways in which we can collaborate in the future.
Finally, we talked about Libya and the UN Security Council, which I understand will be discussing
the issues again today and the possibilities of a no-fly zone. The European Council said very clearly
that we are doing planning for all options, but looking to the legal basis for action which is the
Security Council, and we are looking to the Arab League statement for Saturday which has now
happened and which we were able to discuss. I think in a sense our eyes are now on the Security
Council, but as we look at the situation in Libya we call again for an end to violence.

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