News

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas  during a theme conference of the Baltic Assembly „Development of Human Resources in Conditions of Labour Migration” in Sigulda (Latvia) stressed that the migration of the labour force with its positive and negative consequences is a serious challenge for the Baltic States.

“The decrease in population and the scope of migration are matters of great concern to Lithuania, because they mean the decline of the country’s intellectual potential, loss of investment in people, threat of deceleration of technological progress, development of science and economy, lack of labour force in certain economic sectors,” Minister P.Vaitiekūnas said.

According to the Head of Lithuanian Diplomacy,  talking about development of human resources in conditions of labour migration, the key question that should be answered today is how to stimulate interest of our citizens in their Motherland, how to reduce economic migration and its negative consequences and promote the return migration.

The Minister said, that different solutions to this problems were considered in Lithuania. The most important are the measures related to acceleration of the scientific progress, improvements in labour relations and conditions, living conditions, social security and promotion of business environment.

“Today we build Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for our descendants, therefore we should make serious efforts against easy loss of our nations after difficult fight for our independencies,” Minister P.Vaitiekūnas stated.

The conference was organised on the initiative of Latvia that chairs the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Council of Ministers in 2007. The conference heard speeches by Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Artis Pabriks and Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet as well as presentations of Members of Parliaments of the Baltic States, experts of ministries of social security and labour.

At a separate meeting in Sigulda Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Foreign Ministers discussed energy projects of the Baltic States and Poland, priorities and prospects of regional cooperation of the Baltic Council of Ministers and the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The issues of the EU-Russia relations and the EU agenda were also spoken about.

Talking about the European Neighbourhood Policy, Foreign Ministers of three Baltic States stressed the importance of international community’s support to development of civil societies and democracies in the Eastern neighbours of the EU.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister invited his Latvian and Estonian counterparts to participate in the meeting of the New Group of Georgia’s Friends on 13-14 September in Vilnius.