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AGREEMENT ON EU CONSTITUTION APPROACHES – LITHUANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

On 14 June, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis represented Lithuania at the session of EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), which took place in Luxembourg. The foreign ministers of the EU member states discussed the draft Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe. At the session, various technical articles of the Constitution were discussed as well as the areas of application of the qualified majority voting. Ireland, currently holding Presidency over the EU, presented 49 new proposals concerning the draft articles of the Constitution for this meeting. In his commentaries on the discussion about the draft Constitution, Antanas Valionis underlined that the countries were approaching agreement on multiple issues. In the Minister’s words, Ireland’s proposal on the Council presidency, saying that each country should preside over all the compositions of the Council of the EU during half a year, corresponded to Lithuania’s position. “It is also important for Lithuania that the draft Constitution provided that the decisions on tax issues would be further taken unanimously,” Antanas Valionis indicated. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Lithuania underscored the principle of states’ equality concerning the most controversial issues – calculation of the qualified majority and composition of the European Commission. “But the final decisions will be adopted on 17 June by the heads of states of all the 25 EU members,” Antanas Valionis reminded. It is expected that discussions on the Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe will be concluded on 17-18 June at the European Council meeting.