I will be attending the extraordinary meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) in Luxembourg on 25 June, which has been called due to the likelihood of important developments in the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations.

The council will be chaired by Bernd Pfaffenbach, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour. EU member states will be represented at the GAERC by Trade Ministers, rather than Foreign Ministers, due to the issue to be discussed.

The item on the agenda will be the Doha development round of multilateral trade negotiations. The meeting will review progress made during the negotiations between the G4 group of countries (EU, US, Brazil and India) between 19 and 22 June, and discuss how these negotiations should be taken forward during the next few months, which represent a critical period in the negotiations. The council is likely to adopt conclusions to guide the Commission’s negotiations on behalf of the EU at this meeting.

A further Written Statement will be prepared after the meeting has taken place.