LITHUANIAN FOREGN MINISTER MET WITH HIS COUNTERPARTS FROM CENTRAL EUROPE
Created 2005-02-01
On 31 January Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis attending the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) in Brussels met with his Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Austrian and Slovenian counterparts.
During the working lunch organized on Polish initiative the ministers discussed EU financial perspective and EU cooperation with Ukraine. These issues were considered the most important in the GAERC session in Brussels on 31 January.The aim of this working lunch was to coordinate positions of the Central European countries before the meeting of all 25 EU foreign ministers.
On 30 January A. Valionis took part in Northern and Baltic States foreign ministers dinner, where preparation for the General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting was talked over.
In the first part of the Council meeting the negotiations on the EU financial perspective in 2007-2013 were continued. Commenting European Commissions proposals on the future EU cohesion policy A. Valionis stressed that cohesion policy assets should be fairly allocated regarding the differences of social and economic development, economic growth, the investment needs and create favourable conditions for reaching the EU average.
The Minister stressed that the EU cohesion policy should be concentrated on the poorest Member States especially these countries of Baltic region whose gross domestic product per capita is the smallest among the other EU Members.
In course of the afternoon part of GAERC dedicated to the external relations the ministers discussed development of EU-Ukraine relations. The ministers plan to approve Council conclusions, congratulating the new Ukrainian President and successful democratic re-voting and determining new framework for development of the EU-Ukraine relations.
