News

On 24 November in Warsaw, during the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden, the issues of the European Union Eastern Partnership initiative, the EU budget, the climate change and energy policy of the European Union, as well as the issues of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy were discussed.

During the visit in Poland, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas stressed that the situation in Lithuaniawill be particularly complicated after closing the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. P.Vaitiekūnas indicated that Lithuania expected the EU’s solidarity addressing this issue and highlighted the current significance of the plan of linking the Baltic States that is under the preparation by the European Commission in guaranteeing the energy security in the country and the entire region.

During the press conference, which was held after the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Radosław Sikorski emphasized that the EU Eastern countries expected a new suggestion from the current French presidency of the EU regarding the EU’s climate change and energy policy that would correspond to the specific energy situation of the countries, which took part in the meeting. The final decision on the directions of the climate and energy policy should be made by the European Council this December.

During the event, Ministers adopted a joint declaration, in which a hope is expressed that the EU would pay more attention to the European policy on security of energy supplies. Likewise, Ministers encouraged all of the EU member states to more actively implement the EU Neighbourhood policy and to facilitate the procedures of issuing visas to the inhabitants of the EU neighbouring countries in the East.