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European Union member states and neighbouring countries in the East have to fully use all the tools and instruments of the Easter Partnership initiative – the association, free trade and visa regime liberalization agreements - and to cooperate in the energy field more intensively. Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis said this on 2 March in Budapest, during the meeting of foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group and the Baltic States with representatives of six countries which participate in the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative.

Prospects of cooperation among countries of the region within the Eastern Partnership programme and possibilities for closer EU cooperation with its partners in the East were discussed during the event.

“I am sure that the new European Commission, which has begun its work, will give due attention to the implementation of specific projects of the Eastern Partnership,” the Minister A.Ažubalis said during the meeting.

The Minister also stressed that it was important to allocate adequate financial resources for the implementation of the projects.

Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs encouraged his EU counterparts to provide Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine with a perspective of visa-free regime.

Foreign ministers and representatives of the ministries from the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary), the Baltic States, Spain, Belgium and six EU Eastern Partnership countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, as well as the European Commission representatives took part in the meeting in Budapest.

On the same day, Minister A.Ažubalis also had bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.