News

On 11 May in Vilnius, External Trade Policy Directors from six Nordic and Baltic countries - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden – discussed the EU-Russia external trade relations, the EU-Ukraine negotiations on a free trade agreement and issues of the Eastern Partnership initiative.

Director of the External Economic Relations Department of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Albinas Zananavičius represented Lithuania during the meeting.

The Participants of the meeting stressed that the new EU-Russia agreement should lay a firm foundation for bilateral economic and trade relations.

During the discussion, ways to enhance the EU’s relations with Russia, the accession process of this country to the World Trade Organisation, as well as important for the EU facets of the customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were discussed.

The Directors also evaluated the progress in the EU-Ukraine negotiations on a free trade agreement.

When discussing the issues of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative, the Directors highlighted the importance of joint Nordic-Baltic projects in the East, including the assistance to Georgia in preparations for negotiations with the EU on a free trade agreement.

The Participants of the meeting are also full-fledged members of the Trade Policy Committee of the Council of the European Union. The Committee is comprised of 27 member states and representatives from the European Commission. The Committee shapes the European Union’s external trade policies and helps the European Commission in negotiations on free-trade agreements with the EU and the rest of the world.