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At the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers with Ministers of six Eastern Partnership countries in Brussels on July 23, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis emphasized that Eastern Partnership countries must continue reforms and the EU had to help them.

 “The transition process can be daunting, it requires complex reforms, but the European Union is ready to do all it can to help its Eastern European partners. In this case, the key principle is “more for more”. The more reforms you will carry out, the more significant our support will be,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said.

Ministers of EU and six Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – welcomed the Eastern Partnership Roadmap to the autumn 2013 Summit in Lithuania that provides for actions, measures and objectives.

According to Ažubalis, the Eastern Partnership Roadmap, previous summits in Prague and Warsaw provided a sufficient toolbox to achieve progress; now is the time to achieve results. The Minister stressed that the more active mutual effort would be made, the more success could be achieved at the Summit in Vilnius.

“Both sides are equally important in all partnerships. It is impossible to achieve success and overcome the obstacles without mutual trust. Partnership will be maintained only when both sides respect and fulfil their obligations to each other,” Ažubalis said.

He stressed that in order to make progress, for example, to be granted the EU membership perspective, Eastern Partnership countries must respect the values on which the EU was founded.

“It will be a serious challenge to hold the next elections. Progress can be easily made in the negotiations on the Association Agreement or in certain areas of cooperation, but all this hard work can come to nothing overnight, if the elections will not be free and fair,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said.

Prior to this meeting at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Ažubalis called on EU member states to help the Eastern Partnership countries in passing the test of commitment to European values, to adequately respond to the progress and ambition of the frontrunners, and to maintain cooperation with other partners.