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“The issue of Kaliningrad transit is important for the European Union’s relations with Russia. This issue also touches upon some of the vital interests of Lithuania,” Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis stated commenting on the European Commission’s (EC) Communiqué announced in Brussels on 18 September after the EC deliberation of proposals on the issue of transit from and to Kaliningrad that EU Commissioner for Enlargement Günter Verheugen informed the Lithuanian Foreign Minister about over the telephone. Lithuania presented its position, which the EC took into account drafting this document. “By no means can we put at risk the free movement of our citizens, our business and transport in Europe. Without this, our membership in the EU would not be a full-fledged one.” The Minister also stressed that any changes in the Schengen acquis should apply equally to everyone: if something was applicable to Lithuania as a future member of Schengen, it should also be applicable to any other current or future state of the Schengen Area. "First of all we should see how the ‘facilitated transit documents,’ suggested by the EU, function, how the EU amends its legal acts, how we manage to strengthen our consular service and how the Russian Duma deliberates the treaty on state borders and other agreements. Also, we should complete accession negotiations, join the EU and then we would be able to consider changes. It could take quite a lot of time to meet all other conditions we have raised both to the EU and Russia, and to ourselves. Only afterwards a sufficient context would be created for deliberation of other possibilities set out in the document,” the Chief of Lithuanian Diplomacy emphasised. “If the European Commission proposes to consider the prospect and conditions of visa-free transit between Russia and the EU, in this context the visa-exempt trains gain a totally different meaning. The European Commission has got to look for a complicated compromise. Most of the proposals of the Communiqué will need to be deliberated further. Still we do not intend to enter into lengthy discussions concerning further exploration of the transit of ‘visa-free non-stop trains’ via Lithuania without clear political, legal and financial burden-sharing guarantees. We will be able to return to consideration of this possibility, should the need be, only after Lithuania joins the EU”. The Minister underscored that any order of transit between the Kaliningrad Region and mainland Russia must not entail any risk of postponing Lithuania’s entry into the Schengen Area. “With a view to preparation for earliest possible accession to the Schengen Area, Lithuania has committed itself to introduction of visa regime for Russian citizens still before the accession. On this basis, negotiations with the EU on the Justice and Home Affairs Chapter were preliminary closed in April,” Minister Valionis noted.