Compass points

Continuing violence in Syria was high on the agenda when Europe's foreign ministers met for the second day of their conference in the Polish resort of Sopot on Saturday.

Brussels has not been ruling out the imposition of further sanctions against the country after already imposing an oil embargo.

If the pressure of the embargo fails to influence Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his French counterpart Alain Juppe have said further measures could follow.

On Friday, the group of ministers had decided that there would be no new oil deals with Damascus.

Purchases of oil that have already been agreed may still continue until November 15. This delay had been pressed for by the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

"We need a certain amount of time to be able to put the import ban in place," Frattini said.

Current tension between Turkey and Israel represents another source of concern in the region for the EU. The strain in relations comes after the publication of the findings of an investigation into an Israeli operation against a maritime aid convoy to the Gaza strip in 2010.

Nine Turkish nationals were killed in the storming of the ship Mavi Marama. Ankara has now dismissed the Israeli ambassador and cancelled military arrangements that it, as a NATO member, had with Israel.

"We are calling on all parties not exacerbate the problem but to work towards a relaxation in tensions and the possibility of talks," said Westerwelle.

'Need for both sides to reflect'

The contents of the report should be read by each, said the German minister, even if they did not agree with its contents. The report had contained criticism of both countries.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that his country would bring proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

European foreign ministers also spoke about North Africa. Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, the EU has been paying close attention to the region. However, the Polish hosts of the talks also ensured that there should also be some attention paid to the EU's neighbors in the east.

Westerwelle appeared to agree, saying "neighborhood politics" should entail "significantly more than the region to the south of the Mediterranean."

"We also have eastern neighbors and this eastern 'neighborhood' demands very great political attentiveness," he added.

More democratic steps needed

The EU's head of foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, named Belarus and Ukraine as two that Brussels wished to work with, but with which it was presently having difficulties.

In the Ukraine, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is currently in prison on the accusation that she misused her office - a case many see as being politically motivated by the current administration, which she has criticized so vocally in the past. Ashton said that the EU was following the Tymoshenko case "with great concern."

Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has announced that relaxation of his autocratic system of government. However, there had been no progress on this. Ashton repeated a demand that all political prisoners should be freed.

Poland has convened a meeting for eastern European countries later this month in Warsaw. Among them will be the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova - as well as Belarus and Ukraine.

Author: Christoph Hasselbach, Sabine Faber / rc

Editor: Sean Sinico