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THE EU NORTHERN DIMENSION - A BALTIC VISION

Dear colleagues,
At the Second Foreign Ministers' Conference on the Northern Dimension organized in Luxembourg in April 2001, participants gave broad political endorsement to ongoing work for the Northern Dimension Initiative and welcomed new ideas. We would like to thank the Swedish Presidency of the EU for the new impetus given to the idea during such a short term and is worthy to be mentioned that we have the same expectations during Danish Presidency of the EU. It should be stressed that the Northern Dimension has developed into an effective tool to enhance the co-operation in the Northern region of Europe. The impact of the ND on stability in the area was stressed not only by EU members or partner countries - Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Russian Federation, but also by the different countries in the World, including United States of America.We could see especial value of the ND Initiative for the tasks of the practical integration of the candidate countries of the region into the EU structures. In this context, we could sea special role of the regional organizations in the implementation of this initiative. We highly appreciate contribution of the Council of the Baltic Sea States to the Action Plan for the Northern Dimension and highly welcomed the initiative of the German presidency to draw up a list of regional priority projects, giving the possibility for countries of the Baltic Sea region to express their views on the co-operation within the EU Northern Dimension Initiative. It is very important now that Russia accepts the challenge to implement the Action Plan and Lithuania is looking forward to the Presidency of Russia in the CBSS.The meeting of experts of the CBSS member countries was held in Copenhagen on 24 September 2001 to discuss the issues related with the establishment of the Fund for Sub-regional Development. Lithuania has suggested that the main objectives of the fund - to provide financing for local and regional authorities, to facilitate civil and administrative capacity building among local and regional authorities - should be implemented with the view to the implementation of the ND Action Plan. There is a particular role for the CBSS Secretariat. Excellencies,Kaliningrad is an important part of the agenda of the Northern Dimension. Lithuania and Russia has submitted 5 joint updated priority projects on the co-operation with Kaliningrad from the "Nida Initiative" in the Luxembourg meeting on the Northern Dimension Initiative on April 9, 2001. Those projects are: construction of transport corridor "Via Hanseatica"; modernisation of transport corridor 9D; deepening of the mouth of the Nemunas tributary the Skirvytė river; project for specialized AIDS prevention centre with the branches in Klaipėda and Kaliningrad and joint training programmes for border and customs officials operating on the Russian - Lithuanian and Russian - Polish borders. It is joint agreement between Lithuania and Russian Federation to stress the issues of synchronisation of TACIS, PHARE and INTERREG in implementing common projects. We welcome the fact that Kaliningrad is on the EU enlargement agenda. However, this issue and related decisions are not and must not become a condition to the EU enlargement. Even geographically it is a special case which might need special decisions. Free movement of persons is the most sensitive issue. Together we have to discuss how introduction of visas would and could influence the development of the Kaliningrad region and its relations with the region, and find solutions. Two principles are important: 1) control of borders and movement through the borders, 2) openness of Kaliningrad for co-operation. Dear Colleagues,It is the very moment to start discussion on the cross-border and regional co-operation with Belarus and problems connected with it. Lithuanian authorities are not interested in the international isolation or self-isolation of Belarus. While public officials in Minsk are not in the position to challenge the supreme state powers and the dialogue with the officials on the issues of democratisation has significant difficulties, there are local authorities and non-governmental organisations to be used. The latter represent various parts of the community and could make a significant influence to the development of the democracy in the nation in general. The list of initiatives prepared by the Lithuanian institutions to start active dialogue with the non-governmental organisations and local authorities in Belarus has been distributed during the NB-Eight Foreign Ministers meeting. The processes in Belarus - future neighbour of the EU - and possibility to influence it were somehow abandoned in the context of the ND Initiative. The main threat for the very idea of the Northern Dimension Initiative is the lack of finances for the projects already included into the ND Action Plan. There are no clear financial schemes how to finance the programmes and the projects and we couldn't see financial institutions ready to take this burden. The European Commission is not ready to allocate additional funds for the implementation of the Action Plan. I have mentioned five joint Lithuanian - Russian projects included into the AP but the latest evaluation of the implementation of those has recovered very sad picture: the projects are implemented mostly on Lithuanian side and financed by Lithuanian Government. We could foresee an essential problem in the closest future - the lack of positive examples of the project implementation could devaluate the very idea of the Northern Dimension Initiative. In connection with the said, I would like to stress that there is no need to elaborate new projects but rather concentrate on the implementation of already existing.Thank you for your attention.