Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

On Thursday 1 June, the Prime Minister attended the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Chisinau, Moldova. The summit brought together 49 leaders from across Europe for the second time to discuss common challenges, including strengthening Europe’s resilience to hybrid threats, energy security, and illegal migration. Hosted by Moldova, it was a powerful demonstration of pan-European unity in support of Ukraine and Moldova, in the face of continued Russian aggression.

The Prime Minister co-chaired a security roundtable alongside Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The Prime Minister outlined the areas where the EPC could helpfully respond: (1) energy security; (2) our ability to deal with aggression and hybrid threats to our continent; and (3) our ability to secure our borders. On the third point specifically, the Prime Minister noted that illegal migration has become a serious issue for Europe requiring a lawful and compassionate approach and should be part of the agenda for the EPC from now on.

The Prime Minister also met with over 20 leaders including with Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez where they discussed Gibraltar and with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, with whom he confirmed a new UK-Bulgaria partnership to tackle organised immigration crime.

The Prime Minister also met Moldovan Prime Minister Recean and welcomed the UK-Moldova announcement to begin negotiating a readmission agreement, as well as the UK’s recent full liberalisation of tariffs to support Moldova’s economy. The Prime Minister underlined our continued long-term support to Moldova, including £10 million announced in March to support reforms in the energy sector as well as £12.5 million to UN agencies to support Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. The Prime Minister was also pleased the UK could support the security of the EPC summit including through the participation of the RAF in a joint US-France-Romania-UK exercise during the event.

The Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s continued commitment to supporting Ukraine, attending a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and leaders from Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. They took forward discussion on further ways to support Kyiv, including building on the G7 announcements on air capability.

The Government look forward to hosting the EPC summit in the UK in spring 2024, and are working closely with EPC leaders, including Spain who will host in October 2023, to promote coherence across the summits.

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My noble Friend, the Minister of State (Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment), Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, has made the following written ministerial statement:

On Thursday 11 and Friday 12 May, I chaired the tenth UK-Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council in London. The Council was attended by elected leaders and representatives from Anguilla, Ascension Island, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena, the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Tristan da Cunha and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The overseas territories are a core part of the British family. The 14 overseas territories span the globe and allow the UK to lay claim to being a truly global Britain. The UK has a constitutional responsibility to ensure security, good governance and prosperity for the British nationals and inhabitants of the territories.

The key themes of discussion at this year’s Council were the partnership between the UK and the overseas territories, law enforcement and irregular migration, economic and financial resilience, environment and climate change, healthcare and maritime strategy.

I, in my capacity as Minister for the Overseas Territories, chaired the Council. Other ministerial colleagues attending the discussions included the Treasury Lords Minister (Baroness Penn), the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison), the Minister for Health and Secondary Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), and representatives from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Council agreed priorities and set out commitments and areas for joint work in the year ahead. Representatives welcomed the announcement of a new UK Government strategy on the overseas territories, towards a modern partnership, which will be developed in collaboration with overseas territories Governments. The overseas territories also welcomed the announcement that each Government Department will have an assigned Minister responsible for their Department’s relationship with the territories. I will chair meetings with these Ministers to ensure all parts of the UK Government are working collectively to provide our overseas territories with the support required.