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On 22 July, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis and European Commissioner for Relations with the European Parliament, Transport and Energy Loyola de Palacio del Valle-Lersundi discussed the implementation of EU supported transport infrastructure projects in Lithuania. At the meeting with the Commissioner, Minister Valionis stressed the necessity to include the regional motorway project “Via Baltica” and the regional railway project “Rail Baltica” into the first priority list in order to gain the financing for their implementation sooner. If the projects would be included into the second priority list, their implementation would be postponed till 2010. Loyola de Palacio ensured that the European Commission would consider very seriously the possibility to put the named transport projects among the nearest priorities. The importance of transport infrastructure development in the Baltic region was also stressed in the common letter of 21 July to the Italian Foreign Minister, signed by the Baltic and Polish Foreign Ministers. On the same day, Minister Valionis spoke about the projects of infrastructure in the session of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, where he stressed that Lithuania’s integration into the EU would be fully-fledged only after joining the European transport and energy networks.