News

On 10 September, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis and President of the French Senate Christian Poncelet discussed the development of bilateral political and economic cooperation between Lithuania and France, the upcoming Lithuania’s membership in the European Union (EU) and exchanged opinions on the topical issues of the European and world policy. During the conversation, it was stated that Lithuania’s economic integration into the EU would be fully-fledged only after creating transport and energy infrastructure links between the Baltic Sea region and EU countries. Minister Valionis indicated that Lithuania counted on further France’s support in the EU institutions when debating Brussels’s aid for the implementation of infrastructure projects in the Baltic Sea region. Support for the infrastructure projects was also declared by French President Jacques Chirac at the meeting with Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas on 14 May in Paris. Minister Valionis and French Senate President Poncelet also discussed preparation for the intergovernmental conference, where the final decisions concerning the reform of the EU institutions would be adopted. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, the present draft EU Constitutional Treaty is a good base for starting discussions at the intergovernmental conference, whose participants will have to review certain sensitive issues of the institutional and constitutional reform.