News

Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Relations with the European Parliament, Transport and Energy Loyola de Palacio del Valle-Lersundi accepted an invitation of the Lithuanian Government to participate at the Baltic Council of Ministers session scheduled on 4-5 September in Vilnius. The Estonian, Latvian, Polish and Finnish Prime Ministers and members of government from Italy, the country that currently holds the EU presidency, are invited to participate at the session, where transport and energy infrastructure projects important for the whole Baltic Sea Region and Europe such as “Rail Baltica”, “Via Baltica”, the Lithuanian and Polish “Power Bridge”, etc. and their implementation using support from the EU structural funds will be discussed. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis met Loyola de Palacio on 22 July this year during his visit to Brussels and informed her about the programme and objectives of the upcoming Baltic Council of Ministers session in Vilnius. They also used the occasion to discuss the implementation of the trans-European infrastructure projects in Lithuania. During the conversation, the necessity to include the regional projects “Rail Baltica” and “Via Baltica” into the first EU priority list was stressed. Minister Valionis expressed the hope that while participating in the Baltic Council of Ministers session the Commissioner “will support the striving of Lithuania to include the infrastructure projects that are of first priority to Lithuania and of great importance to the whole enlarged European Union into the major list of priorities supported by the EU”.