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“Focus and unity, especially at this particular moment, are more relevant than ever for the conduct of the effective European Neighbourhood Policy,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius. On 4-5 April, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister attended an Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs (Gymnich) in Athens.

The Foreign Ministers discussed political processes in the EU’s neighbourhood and their impact on the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU.

“At the moment, the most important thing is to maintain a strong position on the non-recognition policy regarding the annexation of Crimea. We must help Ukraine to carry out reforms and aim to sign the remaining chapters of the Association Agreement at the beginning of the summer. We must also make efforts to agree on an early implementation of the Association Agreements with Moldova and Georgia as soon as possible,” L.Linkevičius said.

When assessing the EU’s relations with strategic partners, the Ministers, according to L.Linkevičius, pointed out that the EU-US Summit last week was very timely. It was also noted that previous months’ events in the EU’s neighbourhood confirmed the importance of the close relationship between Europe and the United States.

Separate sessions took place, during which the Ministers discussed the situation in the EU’s neighbourhood with the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament Elmar Brok and Foreign Ministers of such EU candidate countries, as Serbia, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey. This meeting demonstrated that the candidate countries contributed to the strengthening of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The head of the Lithuanian diplomacy met with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and the Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in the margins of Gymnich.

    Ministers’ family photo: The Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union (gr2014.eu)