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Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the European Union ambassador Raimundas Karoblis has presented the priorities of the incoming Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU at an event organized by the European Policy Centre and underlined that success will depend on the cooperation of all member states and EU institutions.

“As the European Parliament elections in spring approach, Lithuania will be the last full-term Presidency of the current legislative cycle. A very heavy workload awaits and the European success is only possible with close cooperation of both member states and EU institutions,” said ambassador Karoblis.

The Permanent Representative has presented the main legislative initiatives of the Presidency which will commence on July 1 focusing on the goal of credible, growing and open Europe. Ambassador Karoblis also discussed expectations for negotiations on the EU’s multi-annual budget for 2014–2020, a broadest Presidency task. Once a political agreement with the European Parliament is reached, over 70 legal acts will have to be adopted for the money from the new budget to reach the EU projects from 2014.

Deputy Permanent Representative ambassador Arūnas Vinčiūnas presented the Presidency priorities in the areas of environment and energy.

“As the EU Presidency, Lithuania will aim to ensure the implementation of the goal set by the European Council to finalize the creation of the internal energy market by 2014. We will also seek that the EU creates a level playing field for both internal and external producers of energy,” said ambassador Vinčiūnas.

Some 300 representatives of the EU institutions, diplomatic missions, NGOs, business organizations and media have attended the presentation. Established in 1996, the European Policy Centre is one of the major think-tanks and has a tradition of organizing presentations of Presidency priorities.