A Ministerial Conference of the Eastern Partnership, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of Moldova and the European Commission, was held in the Moldovan capital of Chișinău (Kishinev) today. The Conference was attended by ministers and heads of state from the EU and Eastern Partnership countries; the Ministry of Rural Development was represented by Minister of State for Public Administration Géza Poprády.

The Eastern Partnership is part of the EU's neighbourhood programme, and includes Eastern European and Central Asian states, including Ukraine and Moldova, which are important foreign policy partners to Hungary. It is within the framework of this programme that the EU provides finding to partner nations for the realisation of the closest possible political partnership and economic integration with the European Union. During the course of cooperation, member states build common interests and values such as democracy, the rule of law, the greatest possible respect for human rights and the strongest possible cohesion.

The participants at the Conference presented their own practices and reviewed the challenges and modernisation requirements faced by the EU and the member nations of the Eastern Partnership, after which they adopted a joint declaration in which they set down the instruments with which the EU and the governments of its member states may help develop the agriculture of partner nations and improve food safety and security, as well as the standard of living of people living in rural areas.

Hungary has close ties to the nations of the Eastern Partnership, in which many development programmes have already been realised with the involvement of Hungarian experts, thus facilitating political, scientific and economic cooperation.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)