News

On 4 October Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas and Vice-President of the European Commission Jacques Barrot discussed projects of transport sector, which are important for Lithuania – namely, Rail Baltica and Via Baltica. The bilateral meeting in Vilnius was a part of the agenda of the Commissioner’s visit to Lithuania. The Minister and the Commissioner also exchanged opinions regarding the development of the infrastructure at the European Union external border.

Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas emphasized the significance of the Rail Baltica project as it is important not only for the solution of Lithuania’s isolation problem, but also for the economic and social development of the whole region.

“It is very important to pursue ambitious goals, which enable to guarantee transportations of goods in compliance with European standards and up-to-date Requirements”, said Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

The Minister expressed concern regarding the constant proliferation of traffic-jams of heavy goods vehicles at the European Union external border, especially at the Latvian-Russian border.

“If the problem were not solved, the international flows of goods would be rerouted else way. Therefore, united efforts of the EU and Russia are necessary to solve the EU frontier infrastructure development issues”, Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas indicated.

During the meeting another issue, which is especially important to Lithuania, was also discussed. It concerns the construction of Via Baltica motorway in the territory of Poland. The Minister stressed that it was necessary to guarantee safe and modern road transport infrastructure link with Western Europe immediately, because the statistics of road traffic flows, accidents and fatalities were terrible.