BEIRUT: The Lebanese delegation at a meeting of the European Union-Lebanon Association Council in Brussels used the occasion to stress the importance of developing bilateral relations and stepping up cooperation in all fields to benefit both businesses and citizens. The meeting, which was the sixth of its kind since the EU-Lebanon Association Agreement came into force in 2006, was chaired by Lebanon’s Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour and attended by Lebanon’s European Neighborhood Policy representative, Economy and Trade Minister Nicolas Nahhas. On the EU side, the Cypriot Foreign Affairs Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis attended on behalf of Catherine Ashton, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission. At the meeting, the parties endorsed the main priorities of an plan that will guide cooperation between the EU and Lebanon in the years 2013-15. The priority objectives are based on Lebanon’s reform agenda. For its part the EU reaffirmed its commitment to Lebanon’s “unity, stability, independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, particularly given the deteriorating situation in Syria,” a press release from the council said.