COUNCIL OF

THE EN C/04/218 Brussels, 13 July 2004

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Sixth meeting of the cooperation council between the European Union and , Brussels, 13 July 2004 - joint communique

The Cooperation Council between the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Kazakhstan held its sixth meeting on Tuesday 13 July 2004. The meeting was chaired by Mr Akhmetzhan Yessimov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The EU delegation was led by Mr Bernard Bot, Foreign Minister of the . The European Commission was represented by Mr Michael Leigh, Deputy Director General for External Relations. The Cooperation Council was the first meeting at this level between the EU and Kazakhstan since the EU enlarged to 25 Member States on 1 May 2004. The meeting came just over five years after entry into force, on 1 July 1999, of the EU-Kazakhstan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). It therefore marked the half-way point in the initial 10 year period of the PCA. The Cooperation Council welcomed the recent historic enlargement of the European Union and the timely signature of the Protocol on accession of the ten new Member States to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Kazakhstan. It looked forward to ratification of this.

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The Cooperation Council welcomed increased efforts on the part of the Government of Kazakhstan to further the process of political reforms, and took note of the extensive programme of political reforms announced in June by President Nazarbayev. It looked forward to implementation of these. The Cooperation Council welcomed Kazakhstan's signature of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and looked forward to Kazakhstan’s signature of their facultative protocols. It welcomed the introduction in Kazakhstan of a moratorium on the death penalty, as well as progress made in reform of the country's judicial and penitentiary systems. The Cooperation Council expressed its expectation that the September 2004 parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan should be fair and in line with international standards. The Cooperation Council agreed that a positive assessment of the elections would be an essential consideration in any decision on the bid of the Republic of Kazakhstan to hold Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2009. The Cooperation Council reaffirmed its commitment to tackling terrorism in accordance with fundamental principles of human rights, the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, and the obligations set out under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373. The Cooperation Council stressed the importance of using the benefits of EU enlargement to strengthen Kazakhstan-EU relations, especially economic ones. Both sides attach particular importance to development of Caspian hydrocarbon reserves for ensuring EU security of energy supplies and development of Kazakhstan's economy. The Cooperation Council agreed to promote bilateral dialogue focusing on market access issues, including a new Agreement on trade in steel products, and to work for early accession of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organization. Both sides renewed their commitment to effective multilateralism and in particular to the central role of the UN in solving international problems. The Cooperation Council welcomed Kazakhstan’s efforts to develop regional integration (SCO, SES, CACO, EAEC*) and its contribution to the maintenance of regional and global peace and security (CICA*) and took note of Kazakhstan’s invitation for the EU to observe the forthcoming meeting of Foreign Ministers of CICA Member States due to be held in in October 2004. * SCO - Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; SES - Single Economic Space (between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan); CICA - Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia; CACO - Central Asia Cooperation Organisation; EAEC - Eurasian Economic Community (between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan).

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