LITHUANIA ORGANIZED EU MEMBERS AND UKRAINIAN REPRESENTATIVES MEETING IN BRUSSELS
Created 2005-02-22
On 21 February, before the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) Meeting, where the EU-Ukraine Action Plan was officially endorsed, Lithuania organized a meeting of several EU Member States representatives with Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister for Eurointegration Oleh Rybachuk chaired by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis.
During the meeting special attention was paid to the new Ukrainian Government’s EU integration programme and to assistance which Lithuania could provide to Ukraine in its reforms process.
In Brussels A. Valionis also met with EU Commissioners: Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Meeting with Andris Piebalgs the Minister underlined the importance of Lithuanian-Polish electricity bridge and new gas supply routes to Western Europe for Lithuania’s and Baltic Sea Region’s integration to the EU internal market.
The main topics of A. Valionis’ conversation with B. Ferrero-Waldner were the European Neighbourhood Policy and forthcoming Commissioner’s visit to Lithuania in March.
In the first part of the GAERC meeting negotiations on EU’s financial perspective in 2007-2013 were continued. Commenting the European Commission’s proposal on the means for increasing EU competitiveness and employment promotion programmes, the Minister stressed that the European Union should exploit properly the potential of new EU Member States.
“The development needs of new and old Member States differ, thus participation of all Members in competitiveness building programmes should be encouraged, balance and efficiency of financing should be ensured,”- A. Valionis stated.
Speaking about European Commission’s proposal on further financing of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant closure the Minister noted that the closure of the plant and coping with its outcomes should be financed from the same source.
According to A. Valionis, current proposal of the European Commission may be considered after reaching common agreement on further implementation of the Ignalina programme.
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