SOUTH CAUCASUS CONCERNS

European Report
August 31, 2006

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said on
28 August in Slovenia that she was looking forward to celebrating
the adoption of European Neighbourhood Policy action plans to boost
economic and political links with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
when she visits the region with the Finnish EU Presidency in early
October. But she said that the last weeks and months had shown an
alarming combination of worrying trends in the region, with little
or no progress in settling frozen conflicts’ combined with rocketing
defence spending and increasingly inflammatory rhetoric. ‘Any further
escalation of tension could re-ignite the conflicts with devastating
consequences for the entire region’, she warned.