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'The slope towards the purpose becomes steeper,' stressed the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis after the negotiations' conference meeting on June 11 in Luxembourg. The meeting in Luxembourg was the fourth negotiations' conference meeting on a minister level attended by the EU countries' and Lithuanian diplomacy since February 2000, when Lithuania started the EU talks. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister, head of the Lithuanian EU membership negotiations' delegation Valionis underscored that Lithuania had successfully made use of the opportunity to catch up with the candidates that started the EU membership negotiations two years earlier. According to the Minister, Lithuania is already 'following on the heels' of the leading candidate countries. It is also an important evaluation of Lithuania's efforts and an incentive for the future, Lithuanian Foreign Minister said. Minister Valionis asserted that it was important that the negotiations were going according to the schedule set in Nice last year. This schedule under the presidency of Sweden in the EU has provided the process of negotiations with more discipline and predictability, the Minister stressed. According to the head of the negotiations' delegation, the European Union should seek to maintain these two features till the end of negotiations. It was declared at the negotiations' conference meeting in Luxembourg that Lithuania had preliminary closed down two more negotiations chapters, those on Freedom to Provide Services and on Fisheries. In the meeting, results of the last six months' Lithuanian EU membership negotiations were discussed and summarized, and the further perspectives of the negotiations considered. It was confirmed that in March and May Lithuania had preliminary closed down the following negotiations chapters: Free Movement of Goods, Free Movement of Capital, Company Law, Economic and Monetary Union, Social Policy and Employment, Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Culture and Audio-Visual Policy, Consumers and Health Protection. Lithuania has closed a total of 17 chapters, 10 of which were closed down in the first half of 2001, during the Swedish EU presidency term. In the Luxembourg meeting it was also agreed that negotiations would start on three more negotiations chapters - those on Energy, Agricultural Policy and Free Movement of Persons. Reviewing the preliminary closed down negotiations chapters, Valionis expressed satisfaction about the fact that the negotiations on the transitional periods have started bearing fruits. 'The fact that Lithuania was granted first transitional periods in two very important negotiations chapters - chapters on Free Movement of Goods and Freedom to Provide Services - shows that we have entered a definitely new qualitative level in the negotiations on which both sides take account of each other's interests', Valionis said. In the chapter on Freedom to Provide Services, two transitional periods were agreed upon and Lithuania was also granted a request to attach credit unions operating in Lithuania to specific credit institutions that are not applied the requirement of 1 million euros minimum fixed capital and some other requirements for the activities of credit institutions. In this chapter, Lithuania was granted transitional periods till the end of 2007. During this period, Lithuania will coordinate its deposit insurance sum, deposit compensation amount and insured deposits' categories with the EU requirements and will also seek to implement the directive on the compensations to investors for lost means or securities. In the chapter on Free Movement of Goods, Lithuania was granted a transitional period till January 1, 2007. During this period, pharmaceuticals' documentation will have to be arranged according to the EU regulations. Visiting Luxembourg, Minister stressed that he would continue discussions on the most serious issues of negotiations with the European Commissioner responsible for enlargement Gunter Verheugen, which is to visit Vilnius next week. There also were bilateral meetings of the Lithuanian Foreign Minister with ministers of EU member and candidate countries arranged in Luxembourg. The delegation headed by Minister Valionis, also consisted of the Lithuanian Chief Negotiator with the EU, Director General of the European Committee under the Government of Lithuania Petras Auštrevičius, Deputy Chief Negotiator, Head of the Lithuanian Mission to the European Communities Ambassador Romualdas Kalonaitis and Adviser of the Foreign Ministry Audrius Navikas.