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On 13 October, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kęstutis Budrys took part in the Warsaw Security Forum discussion “Half-Baked or Step-by-Step? Rethinking EU Enlargement”, where he stressed that European Union enlargement was not merely a political or economic project, but also one of Europe’s most important security instruments.

The discussion also featured President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Oana-Silvia Țoiu. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister emphasised that the key task today is to ensure that EU enlargement actually happened. According to Budrys, the greatest challenge at present is not how an enlarged Union would be governed, but rather the political obstacles preventing even the opening of technical accession negotiations with candidate countries that had made progress.

“For me, the test of whether we are serious about enlargement will be whether we can put bilateral tensions aside and refrain from blocking further steps,” Budrys said.

The Minister stressed that Ukraine today is defending not only its own independence, but also the security of Europe as a whole. Its prospect of EU membership is therefore a strategic investment in a stronger and more secure Europe.

“We need security, and Ukraine contributes to our security because it has the strongest military forces, and we need them. They are already helping us, so let us start integrating them into some of our structures and institutions now, even if initially with observer status,” the Minister said.

Budrys noted that major strategic objectives could sometimes appear difficult to achieve, but could be realised through consistent, step-by-step progress. He therefore called for the negotiating clusters with Ukraine and Moldova to be opened more quickly, before Lithuania assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and pledged that Lithuania will actively pursue further progress during its Presidency.

“We still lack leadership and an understanding of just how interconnected we are. We spend too much energy competing with one another instead of building a stronger Europe,” Budrys said.

Recording of the discussion: https://www.youtube.com/live/xundt8_5quo