News

On 14 January, a book about Lithuania’s accession into the European Union (EU) negotiations published by the European Integration Studies Centre was presented at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The book released under the initiative and with support of the Lithuanian MFA is a selection of the most important and so far unpublished official documents, reflecting the process and results of the accession negotiations during 2000-2002. It is also the first such edition published after a year since the end of negotiations. “I believe that Lithuania’s negotiations will be of much interest not only to Lithuanian, but also to foreign investigators and scientists. Lithuania, apart from dealing with all the other so called horizontal issues of negotiations, also solved very important issues specific to Lithuania, such as decommissioning the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and the transit to and from the Kaliningrad Region,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis said at the meeting. In the Minister’s opinion, the accession negotiations bear historical importance and are of much interest, because “they are the first and possibly the last negotiations of such scope and effect” in the modern political history of Lithuania. “Almost all Lithuanian state institutions, many non-governmental organisations and interest groups took part at the negotiations. Thus, a good coordination of the process was a precondition of success, especially considering the fact that we have started the negotiations one and a half years later than the countries of the so called Luxembourg group,” the Minister pointed out. According to Minister Valionis, the book, which contains the most important documents of the negotiating delegation and the Accession Conference, might be also called public and comprehensive report on the negotiating delegation’s activities.