Key developments in the Ukrainian crisis

Between 2010 and 2015, the European Council held 42 meetings, of which 30 discussed the Union’s foreign policy in the format of regular (20), extraordinary (7) and informal (3) meetings. The European Council dealt with a wide range of regional policies (for example, the Eastern Partnership and the Southern Neighbourhood Partnership), country-specific policies (for example, Iran and Iraq) and policy approaches of a more thematic nature (for example, humanitarian aid).
The extraordinary and informal meetings addressed, as a matter of priority, three external crises, namely the Libyan, Syrian and Ukrainian crises. The extraordinary (special) European Council held in September 2010 is an exception. It was not organised in response to a crisis as the other extraordinary European Councils but dealt with the question of strategic partnerships in the context of the re-evaluation of the Union’s foreign policy objectives following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.