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Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Darius Skusevičius, attended the ministerial meeting of EU Member States and Eastern Partners on 19 June where discussions centred on the preparation for the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels in November. Ministers of foreign affairs from EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries discussed the achievements of the Eastern Partnership and agreed on short-term goals in developing relations between the EU and its partners in the east.

Skusevičius says it is important to give a clear vision of the Eastern Partnership at the forthcoming Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels. It should reflect the partner countries’ aspirations to cooperation with the EU and facilitate further reforms. The Eastern Partnership is a long-term policy that is why the European Union should not be afraid of long-term ambitious goals that are an encouragement to further reforms. “Joy over a visa free regime offered to Georgia and Ukraine and ratification of the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement should not be the cause for slowing down the pace and losing ambition to cooperate with Eastern Partnership countries,” Vice-Minister says.

Vice-Minister Skusevičius also notes that, by developing relations with all Eastern partners as well as by recognising and respecting their different aspirations and ambitions vis-à-vis the EU, the European Union should be ready for closer cooperation with the countries that wish the closest possible political and economic rapprochement with the EU thus should offer its broad political and financial support for reforms needed for practical implementation of the Association Agreements.