Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini upon arrival to the informal leaders’ meeting in Sibiu
First of all, buongiorno! Let me say that I believe that on Europe’s day, it is highly important that the leaders of the European Union Member States come together to show unity and determination to preserve and continue to invest in the European Union project.
And let me also add that I’m flying directly from Tirana where I was attending the leaders meetings of the Western Balkans and it was for me and it is for me a special message: the European Union integration process has such a high level of support in the countries in the Western Balkans, in the Balkans – as we are in Romania – that I really believe that the leaders today and in the future years will need to consider the future of the Balkans inside the European Union as a matter of priority for our economic prosperity, for security of the region and of the entire European Union. So I’m bringing this message directly from Tirana in Albania: the support for the European Union is around 90 percent. It’s a capital that we need to preserve in the future.
And today with the leaders we will also discuss the responsibility that the European Union has in the world. Our partners in the region and globally see that European Union as a key player on which they rely -and I believe that internally we will need to reflect more on the need to strengthen our global role – in a moment where the world needs the European Union leadership on so many different issues.
Q: How are you doing it on Iran?
On Iran, you might have seen a joint statement that we have issued with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK. There is a lot of concern from my side personally also on these developments. We remain fully committed to the full implementation of the JCPOA, of the nuclear deal. It’s a matter of security for us and for the entire world. The European Union investment in nonproliferation continues to be a top priority for us. So far we have seen Iran fully compliant with all its nuclear related commitments under the nuclear deal. The IAEA will continue to monitor these nuclear related commitments’ implementation and we will continue to see the compliance of Iran to its commitments to the JCPOA through the lenses of the assessments that the IAEA will continue to do. So I hope that our full commitment that is there, 100 percent, to preserve this important agreement will contribute to preserve it in the future.