News

On the Lithuanian and Latvian initiative, a tripartite meeting of the Baltic Foreign Ministers Antanas Valionis, Sandra Kalniete and Kristiina Ojuland took place in Brussels on 18 February to discuss some of the aspects of the EU institutional reform currently deliberated at the European Convention. The ministers agreed that equality of EU member-states, preservation of the bloc’s institutional balance and efficiency were the principles to be built upon in debating the EU institutional reform. In this context, the ministers acknowledged that it was necessary to keep the rotation of presidency of the EU changing the chairing nation every six months in order to maintain the member-states’ direct involvement in the EU governance. The Baltic ministers were in accord that the status of representatives of the new members of the EU must be brought into line with that of representatives of the current EU member-states at the Convention so that all participants could enjoy equal opportunities of shaping the Final Document of the Convention. Ministers Valionis, Kalniete and Ojuland were also unanimous in stating that the Intergovernmental Conference, which is to take the final decisions on the EU reforms, should start only after ratification of the Accession Treaties in the future member-states and be concluded subsequently to their full-fledged membership in the EU on May 2004. According to the chiefs of diplomacy of the Baltic States, it is necessary to seek closer cooperation among small and congenial states within the framework of the Convention. At the meeting, a proposition was put forward for the representatives of the Baltic States to discuss their positions prior to the sittings of the Convention.