BATBOLD PM RECEIVES EU AMBASSADORS TO MONGOLIA

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ S.Batbold PM received on Wednesday the EU Ambassadors to Mongolia. He thanked them--ambassadors, vice heads of diplomatic missions, diplomatic advisors and others of 22 member-countries of the EU--for taking part in the meeting held on November 22-23. The Premier noted that this meeting makes a basis for expanding the Mongolia-EU cooperation. He mentioned that a Mongolia-EU partnership and cooperation memorandum was initialed last year and is expected to be signed soon, and said that, based on this document, the relations and cooperation will widen further. He asked the Ambassadors to pay a special attention to this matter. The EU Ambassadors expressed a hope that the establishment of this agreement will take place because 24 out of the EU 27 members have agreed so far to do this. S.Batbold raised an issue of introducing the EU standards and norms into Mongolia and said the Mongolian government is maintaining a policy to achieve this goal. He added that a document on this policy has been submitted to parliament, so he hopes it would be approved by the State Great Khural. "Mongolia wants to study experience of the EU members,” he said. The two sides also considered an issue of eliminating Mongolia from the list of "non-market economy countries". Saying this matter has been continuing for many years, the Premier asked the Ambassadors to take effective measures and to focus on increasing the bilateral trade and investments. In response, the Ambassadors underlined that the EU is making efforts to eliminate Mongolia from this list and added Union attaches a significant importance to the relations with Mongolia. B.Khuder