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At the meeting of the EU Ministers for European Affairs in Brussels on July 24, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis called on ministers by the end of this year to adopt a position on the EU budget 2014-2020 that would ensure sufficient cohesion funding.

 “The Cohesion Policy is the key financial instrument contributing to economic recovery and growth and jobs agenda. Therefore, sufficient resources must be ensured for the successful implementation of the policy, while putting emphasis on reducing regional development disparities,” Ažubalis said.

The General Affairs Council meeting discussed the Commission’s recently updated Multiannual Financial Framework proposal. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that even though it was clear that the Commission’s updated proposal was of technical nature, it did not address any of the three main problems that Lithuania was concerned about, i.e., capping for cohesion allocations, not uniform level of Common Agricultural Policy direct payments and not adequate financing of the decommissioning of Ignalina nuclear power plant.

The Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council informed Ministers for European Affairs about recent bilateral meetings with EU member states and about the plan to achieve an agreement on the EU budget 2014-2020 during this half-year.

“We fully stand behind you in your endeavours to get an agreement on Multiannual Financial Framework by the end of this year, as our Heads of States and Governments have politically committed during the recent European Council meeting,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said.

Lithuania also spoke in favour of maintaining fiscal discipline when allocating resources of the next multiannual EU budget and of directing them to those areas and member states that would benefit the most from this investment.