LITHUANIA’S FOREIGN VICE-MINISTER: IT IS IMPORTANT TO COORDINATE PROJECTS OF EUROPEAN ORGANISATIONS
On 17 February at an informal meeting of European Union Development Cooperation Ministers in La Granja (Spain), Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Evaldas Ignatavičius delivered a speech during the session “Aid Efficiency. Division of Labour among Donors.” The Vice-Minister noted that it was important to coordinate the projects that were being implemented by various European organisations: the EU, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe, regional Mediterranean, Baltic, Black and Caspian’ Seas organizations, and by the Balkan countries.
Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius emphasized the need to act jointly with important development cooperation partners from other continents: the U.S.A., Canada, Japan, etc.
As positive examples, the Vice-Minister mentioned a joint project of Lithuania and Sweden in the Eastern Partnership countries, a joint project of Lithuania and Greece in Afghanistan, and a successful project of Lithuania and the U.S.A. for the modernization of Ukraine’s customs offices system, which this year was expanded to Belarus and was included into the list of priority projects of the EU Eastern Partnership programme.
Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius briefly presented the future Lithuania’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, highlighted the projects that were being launched together with other countries and possibilities to include Afghanistan into the cooperation of Central Asian countries on border control, combating drug trafficking, water treatment, etc.
The Vice-Minister stressed that the success of democratic elections in Ukraine, ambitious plans of the government of Moldova to implement reforms in compliance with the EU standards, also the initiatives of Belarus within the Eastern Partnership programme, testified to current success of the EU’s efforts and cooperation projects. The Vice-Minister suggested that the countries which were most actively implementing development projects in the space of the Eastern Partnership programme should organize their activities more efficiently.
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