News

On 15 July, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Albinas Zananavičius took part in a video conference of Ministers for European Affairs, who prepared for the special meeting of the European Council on 17 and 18 July.

Ahead of the meeting, Ministers discussed the revised proposal for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 and the recovery package (EUR 750 billion). The proposal will serve as a basis for the leaders’ discussions at the Special European Council.

As regards the new proposal for the MFF and the recovery package presented by the European Council President Charles Michel on 10 July, A. Zananavičius stressed that, despite the positive recent developments, important for Lithuania issues remained unresolved.

“The new proposal does not address the issues that are of particular importance for Lithuania, There is no increase in the Cohesion Policy funding, ways to accelerate the external convergence of direct payments to farmers are not foreseen, and the funding for the decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant and for the implementation of the Special Kaliningrad Transit Programme remains insufficient. It is also necessary to ensure that greater funds are allocated to Europe’s military mobility as an investment into the security of our future. Moreover, the EU corrections must be abolished in order to achieve a transparent future budget of the EU,” said Foreign Vice-Minister.

A. Zananavičius also drew attention to the need to develop solutions for a fair distribution of support from the recovery package among all member states, its greater predictability and longer duration, because only this would ensure the possibility of planning and implementing serious structural reforms.

In addition, the Foreign Vice-Minister informed the participants of the meeting that at the Special European Council the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda was going to draw the leaders’ attention to Russia's historical revisionism – the re-interpretation of historical facts and whitewashing of crimes committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime.

The German presidency also presented its priorities for the next six months. The presidency will focus on a rapid conclusion of the negotiations on the next MFF and the recovery plan. It will also spare no effort to ensure that the negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom reach a successful outcome, and to promote a common, cooperative and constructive approach to dealing with the issue of the rule of law.