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According to Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis, although Lithuania is one of the most successful candidate countries in the EU accession negotiations, the importance of the forthcoming semester’s tasks shows that Lithuanian negotiators will have to work very hard. “Over the past six months, substantial progress has been achieved, and now we step into the conclusive yet the most difficult stage of negotiations, which holds in store the most crucial strategic issues: financing of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning, agriculture and budget”, the Head of Delegation, Minister Valionis noted during the session of Lithuania’s Delegation for EU Accession on 26 June in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the Chief of Lithuanian Diplomacy, Lithuania’s efforts of the past six months were duly evaluated at the Seville Summit last weekend, where the EU confirmed its commitment to conclude accession negotiations with Lithuania and the other nine candidate countries named at the Laeken Summit of 2001 before the end of this year. “However, in Seville, EU leaders also stressed that the negotiations would be successfully completed if the candidate countries were ready for membership and maintained a constructive and realistic stance”, the Foreign Minister stated.