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At a conference on the European security culture on 30 May, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas indicated that along the known threats of today – terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts and organised crime – Europe faced new threats. According to the Minister, one of the greatest new threats is the energy security problem. The Minister said, that founding of the EU and its enlargement guaranteed peace in a greater part of the European continent.

‘Wishing the EU voice to be heard widely, we have to further develop common security policy, which means that the EU countries have to be ready to spend more on it,’ said the head of Lithuanian diplomacy.

However, as a possible danger P.Vaitiekūnas named also a certain fatigue, which appeared after the enlargement of the European Union.

P.Vaitiekūnas indicated that while speaking about the European security culture, we were also speaking about values. These values are named in the main documents of the EU, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

‘Respect for human dignity, freedom, democratic society and genuine market economy are and should remain the basis for every European action,’ said Minister P. Vaitiekūnas.

Speaking about democratic values, the Minister stressed the significance of relations with Russia. All the EU countries, including Lithuania, are interested in close cooperation with Russia – peaceful and democratic Russia, which would respect human rights, the rule of law, firmly abiding to the international law and principles of good neighbourhood.

‘Everything that we could do in Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia, could also be very useful to Russia. Encouraging to create the ‘success stories’ in our as well as in Russia’s neighbourhood, the Minister emphasized that the European perspective and joining the Membership Action Plan would be a significant step forward for these countries.

According to P.Vaitiekūnas, while discussing the security culture, we are also talking about the determination to assume political responsibility and take risks. The previous week Lithuania had suffered a tragic loss in Afghanistan – a Lithuanian soldier perished in the province of Ghor.

‘This was a very sad moment for Lithuania and a test for our society – we had a chance to reassess how firm our commitments are and what the values, that our soldiers are fighting for, mean to our people. I think we passed this test,’ said P.Vaitiekūnas.

The conference on the European security culture is organised by the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the EU Presidency of Slovenia and the upcoming French EU Presidency in the next half-year, the European Union Institute for Security Studies and the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University.

At the conference, the officials of the EU countries and institutions, representatives from academic institutions discuss the changes of the European security culture and of the attitude towards the use of power. They also generalise the experience of the EU operations that were carried out and discuss various international security issues.

The officials from the EU and NATO countries, the EU Neighbourhood countries, the EU and NATO institutions and representatives from academic institutions are taking part in the conference.