On November 22, President Ts.Elbegdorj received Ambassadors of the European Union (EU) and over 20 EU member countries in Mongolia. In the beginning of the meeting, the President expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and briefed them about the present political and economic situation in Mongolia.He said, “Mongolia attaches great importance
to the development of relations and cooperation with European countries, and EU countries are considered the ‘third neighbors’ of Mongolia in its foreign policy. In the last half of this year,the President of Finland Ms. Tarja Halonen, and Germany’s Chancellor Ms. Angela Merkel visited Mongolia. The visits significantly contributed to expand the relations between Mongolia and the EU. Also, the president paid visits to the UK and Italy this October and shared views with British Prime Minister David Cameron.”

President Ts.Elbegdorj met with over 20 EU ambassadors in the State House

“2011 is a vital year for Mongolia. We celebrated important historical anniversaries of Mongolia. Now, we are going to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the national liberation
movement,” he added.The President spoke that a Bill on the State Budget for 2012 is currently under parliamentary discussion and it must be adopted before December 1, 2011. “Next year will be important in politics because the parliamentary election will take place in June. Therefore, political parties and MPs are very busy approving a new electoral law. Last year, all Mongolian people were registered with their finger prints. We hope it will make the parliamentary election process easier and help avoid any conflicts. E-counting will be used to the election”.

President Elbegdorj said that he is giving much attention on judicial reform and good governance and has submitted six bills to parliament on legal reform that he drew up. “Mongolia’s government resolved to introduce EU standards and norms and it will appreciatively accept any initiative from the EU on this issue,” he said.

He also touched upon an issue regarding the Tavan Tolgoi deposit and mining sector. “Mining brings big possibilities and new changes to Mongolia. It creates much economic interest directed towards Mongolia with huge investment and modern techniques and technologies. Now,we face issues to mix these big interests and possibilities in the right way. It is expected that the Tavan Tolgoi Investment Agreement will be established prior to the 2012 parliamentary election.” “Currently, we have 11 embassies in EU.The latest one recently opened in Rome, Italy.This year, Mongolia took chairmanship of the Community of Democracies (CD) and we are paying attention to democratic partnership in Asia and the education of democracy,” the President said, adding that he plans to organize a meeting in December in Tunisia in scope of the CD after visits to Qatar and Kuwait. He hopes that the EU will send high-level representatives to this meeting.

At the end of his speech, the President underlined the importance of establishing a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Mongolia and the EU.

In turn, the Ambassadors thanked the President for the audience and for giving information on Mongolia’s economic and political situation. They asked about issues of mining, election law, legal reform, NATOMongolia and EU-Mongolia ties and partnership and the moratorium of Mongolia on capital punishment.

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