Jagland has emphasized the importance of strengthening the cooperation with the European Union and regular consultations are taking place with the leaders of the EU. The process of EU accession to the European Convention was meant to be ratified by 2015, but as of July 2017, no new accession agreement had been drafted. Jagland signed an intention agreement with Commissioner Stefan Füle in April 2014, which will considerably increase the number of Joint Programmes and EU financing of projects implemented by the Council of Europe. Jagland has also taken the initiative to a Neighbourhood Policy which includes an important number of cooperation activities on the basis of Council of Europe standards with Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Kazakhstan.