News

On 15 May, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis met with the Ambassadors of European Union (EU) member and candidate countries resident in Vilnius. At the meeting, the Minister discussed the results of the referendum on the EU membership, preparations for the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) session on 19-20 May and topical issues currently debated at the European Convention. Minister Valionis thanked the Ambassadors of the EU member states for the contribution of their countries towards the positive outcome of the referendum and urged their parliaments to ratify the Accession Treaty as soon as possible. The Ambassadors of the EU member and candidate states congratulated the Chief of Lithuanian Diplomacy with the excellent referendum results. At the meeting the Minister laid down the Lithuanian position vis-a-vis the future of the EU and emphasised that the decision on the new Constitutional Treaty of the EU had to be adopted only after Lithuania' accession to the Union. The Foreign Minister briefed the Ambassadors on preparations for the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), which Lithuania for the first time would attend as an observer. This Council is important for Lithuania because it will deal with the preparation for the EU-Russia Summit scheduled on 31 May in St. Petersburg, where Lithuania has been invited to participate too. The Minister underscored that, in Lithuania's opinion, both the EU member and candidate states should take part in the EU-Russia Summit on equal footing and be represented in the same line-up. At the EU Summits - in Copenhagen, Brussels, Athens - Lithuania was represented by the President and the Prime Minister. The Chief of Diplomacy emphasised that in the agreed EU position there was a very important provision for Lithuania obliging Russia to ratify its Readmission and State Border Agreements with Lithuania by 1 July 2003.