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On 23 November, in Riga, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas participated in the format of the 13th Baltic Council, a conference called “the Baltic States and the European Union Neighborhood Policy”, in which the Minister gave a speech “The European Neighbourhood Policy – Towards a Europe with Common Values”. In his speech, the Minister indicated that with the help of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) seeking to grant stability, security and welfare in the whole region, it was, first of all, important to achieve more effective results in specific areas: develop free trade, facilitate the visa regime, and resolve frozen conflicts.

“Although the core of the ENP lies in the area of practical cooperation and main expectations are related to the concrete and tangible results, the ENP should not be regarded as rather technical matter. It must be driven by a political vision,” claimed Minister of Foreign Affairs .

During the period of a few recent years, the EU Neighborhood Policy became more active. However, this latest European project is far from being finished. The most significant challenge, which we are facing, is the necessity to identify the role of the Eastern Europe in broader context. By drawing on the conception of the “European neighbors” in a broad sense and developing the dialogue “Europe-to-Europe”, which would involve the EU and all of the European neighbours in the North , as well as in the East and in the Southeast, it would be necessary to find the right role for the  Eastern Europe in the European debates.

Obviously, this region is different from other regions that border with Europe. Eastern Europeans are united not just by the history of Europe, but also by the European identity. Incontrovertible evidence is that the Eastern neighbors of Lithuania are a part of Europe. Therefore, the EU should develop versatile multilateral cooperation with the countries in the region.

The Minister positively evaluated the recent proposal by European Parliament on establishing the EU-Neighbourhood-East Parliamentary Assembly - “EURO-NEST on 15 November”.

“This is one of the first practical steps in developing the EU-Eastern European countries multilateral cooperation, which would also include pro-democracy observers from Belarus”, – said the Head of Lithuanian diplomacy.