News

Lithuania is interested in successful negotiations on the Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis said while reviewing the course of the EU Intergovernmental Conference in the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) on 4 May. “Efforts and will to agree on the Constitution have strengthened. The Lithuanian officials permanently coordinate the common interests at the meetings of Nordic and Baltic states and consult with the larger EU states. Accordingly, cooperation between Lithuania and 11-12 like-minded countries, where common positions on the most controversial issues of the Intergovernmental Conference are agreed upon, has matured,” the Minister said. According to Antanas Valionis, Lithuania seeks that the future system of qualified majority voting in the EU decision making process would allow the country to participate in and form coalitions, and not to block decisions; furthermore, the expansion of areas where decisions would be taken by a qualified majority voting is “well-balanced and corresponds to Lithuania’s interests”, as the veto right is not the best means to secure the interests. The Minister pointed out that a simple and effective principle of double majority was acceptable to Lithuania on condition that the “double majority” would mean equal proportions of member states and number of population or that the difference between the two would be minimal. The system of double majority voting proposed by the Convention on the Future of Europe foresees the adoption of a decision in the Council of the EU, if more than a half of all the member states and at least 60 percent of all the EU population vote for it. According to Antanas Valionis, as far as the composition of the European Commission is concerned, Lithuania favours the principle “one country – one commissioner”. The Minister also noted that adoption of the Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe would not end with the Intergovernmental Conference, as a long process of ratification awaited it. “Decision whether to hold a referendum on the Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe is a political and not legal issue for Lithuania. The Lithuanian citizens approved the fact of EU membership in the mandatory referendum. Neither Lithuania’s Constitution, nor the referendum law require that conditions of the country’s participation in the international organisations or amendments of such conditions would be obligatorily approved in a referendum,” the Minister stated. In his opinion, the EU Constitution should be ratified in the Seimas.