European Union (EU) Cooperation Council welcomed adoption of the Council Decision on the Conclusion of the EU–Kazakhstan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA), signed in 2015, Eurasia Diary reports citing Trend News.

The agreement which has now been ratified by all EU Member States and the European Parliament will fully enter into force on March 1, 2020.

This was announced during the seventeenth meeting of Cooperation Council between EU and Kazakhstan held in Brussels on January 20, 2020. The Cooperation Council was chaired by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Croatia Gordan Grlić Radman. The delegation of Kazakhstan was led by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi.

According to the statement, full application of the EU-Kazakhstan EPCA will allow for even closer cooperation in areas which were not provisionally applied to date, in particular, in the areas which fall under EU member state competence such as Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The Cooperation Council confirmed the mutual commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations. The EU looks forward to the first official visit of Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomart Tokayev to Brussels mid-February.

Highlighting that the implementation of a new European Green Deal is a top priority, the Cooperation Council welcomed Kazakhstan's National Strategy towards a Green Economy.

In the margins of the Cooperation Council, Tileuberdi hold a bilateral meeting with the EU High Representative Josep Borrell. The sides discussed EU-Kazakhstan relations as well as regional and international developments and cooperation.