News

On 17 November in Brussels, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis participated in the meeting of his EU counterparts, where the agenda of the European Council to take place in December was discussed. The agenda foresees taking decisions in the spheres of the European economic growth, EU development, justice, home and external affairs. The ministers also debated the draft EU Constitutional Treaty, which should be adopted in the European Council Summit in December. Minister Valionis underlined at the meeting, that the Quick Start programmes important to the EU economic growth should be financed by combining various EU financial instruments. The merging of Lithuanian-Polish energy networks is included into the list of Quick Start programmes. In order to implement this project Lithuania seeks to use funds from various EU financing sources. The ministers also discussed the EU-Russian Summit, which took place in October. Antanas Valionis stated that in its relations with Russia the EU should strive to achieve results useful to both sides. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister drew the attention to the complicated state of democracy and human rights in Belarus and suggested assessing it in the meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at ministers’ level to take place on 2 December. On 17-18 November, Minister Valionis also participated in the EU foreign ministers’ meetings with US State Secretary Colin Powell and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, where the situation in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran was discussed. On 18 November, Antanas Valionis presented awards to three officials of the European institutions, who contributed to the successful ending of Lithuania’s EU accession negotiations.