News

On 26-27 October during the European Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting in Luxembourg, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas and his counterparts from EU member states discussed the forthcoming European Council, relations with Moldova, Western Balkans, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Middle East Peace Process.

When preparing for the European Council, which is due on 29-30 October, foreign ministers discussed its agenda issues: the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon and climate change, and approved of the adoption of the Strategy on the Baltic Sea Region in the upcoming European Council.

On the subject of coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Minister expressed expectations that the Czech Republic would make all necessary decisions, which would allow to conclude the ratification of the treaty. In this case, heads of the EU countries might have to choose the candidates to the main EU posts on 29 October: the President of the European Council and the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (“the EU’s Foreign Minister”).

“Europe needs dynamic new faces with strong strategic visions, who would be able to represent all 27 member states,” said Minister V.Ušackas.

In Luxembourg, the Ministers discussed the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS). During the discussions, the most attention was dedicated to the issues of the EEAS status, financing, staff and functions of the future service.

Minister V.Ušackas stressed that the EEAS should satisfy the requirements of the 21st century, i.e. it should be a modern, dynamic and innovative service. First of all, it has to serve the interests of all the EU citizens, especially when providing urgent consular assistance to the citizens of those EU member states, which do not have their own diplomatic representations in the third countries.

“While creating a new EEAS, we should not be putting new wine into old wineskins”, said the Minister pointing his colleagues’ attention to the fact that member states should play an important role already in the initial stage of shaping the EEAS.

Minister V.Ušackas spoke up for more radical changes while shaping the EEAS. In the opinion of the Minister, these changes should not be limited to the renaming of the directorates of the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. The Minister encouraged shaping the EEAS in a way that half of the employees of the EEAS would be newly appointed diplomats from the diplomatic services of member states, and the other half would be from current EU institutions.

The head of Lithuania’s diplomacy highlighted that it was necessary to agree on the principles of sharing the financial support for developing countries within the EU until the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

“We must pursue that when sharing the burden of the EU financial support, the contributions of the countries would be adjusted according to their level of their development,” said Minister V.Ušackas.