News

At an informal meeting of European affairs ministers on 16 March in Brussels, Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė and her counterparts discussed the EU 2020 strategy for economic growth and employment, which is currently being prepared. The meeting of ministers from European Union member states was held at the initiative of the Spanish EU Presidency.

The ministers discussed EU-level headline goals, management of strategy and pilot initiatives in the key areas that the European Commission had identified. The process of international negotiations on climate change and the creation of the EU diplomatic service were also discussed.

The Vice-Minister emphasized that the EU 2020 strategy had to maintain and further develop the goals of sustainable economic growth and creation of jobs, with a special focus on the internal market.

“We will be able to implement priorities only if we reach an agreement on a limited number of competitiveness indicators which promote reforms and for which we can assume responsibility at the EU and national levels. Therefore, we suggest including into the EU 2020 strategy such important indicators as the innovativeness index or labour productivity,” Vice-Minister A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said.

The Vice-Minister also highlighted Lithuania’s interest to reflect in the EU 2020 strategy the significance of connecting isolated energy markets, because a fragmented nature of the EU internal energy market remained a serious obstacle for economic growth.

A more detailed discussion on these issues is to be held during the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on 22 March and at the European Council meeting on 25-26 March.