The EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and the foreign ministers of Estonia, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, were to hold discussions on strengthening the role of the EU in world politics and EU neighbourhood policy.


One of the issues discussed on the sidelines of the meetings was a vote in the Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.


By a vote of 131-130, the Swedish parliament backed a resolution on Thursday that branded the killing of up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, a term that Turkey rejects.


The vote followed a decision by a committee of the United States House of Representatives the previous week to approve a non-binding measure condemning the 1915 killings. In both cases Turkey responded angrily, withdrawing its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm.


Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he was upset by the vote and concerned it could affect Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.


The vote in the Swedish parliament was particularly galling for Turkey as Sweden is one of Ankara´s strongest backers on issues including Turkey´s desire to join the European Union.


Davutoglu, the architect of Turkey´s foreign policy of re-engaging with its neighbours, including Armenia, said it was wrong for parliaments to think they could define history purely via a vote.


The host of the meeting, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said one should focus on the future instead.


He stated quote: "All the nations have skeletons in the closet and therefore it would be better if we focused on the questions in the present or in the future. History is a science and its interpretation is something for the historians."


The informal meeting ends today.