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On 22 September, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Albinas Zananavičius attended the General Affairs Council in Brussels in the run-up to the special European Council meeting to be held on 1 and 2 October. At their meeting, the EU leaders will discuss the single market, industrial policy, digital transformation, and the European Union’s external relations.

In the Council meeting, Zananavičius called for further deepening of the EU’s single market and for paying particular attention to therepression of peaceful protestors in Belarus, as well as for the poisoning of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Russia.

“Europe must show solidarity with the people of Belarus, condemn their repression, and demand that the country’s authorities release all who have been detained during the protests,” said Zananavičius. According to Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister, those responsible for the poisoning of Navalny must be identified and held accountable.

Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister noted that the European Council meeting must highlight the importance of ensuring nuclear safety, while the Belarusian government had to implement safety and environmental standards before launching the Ostrovets nuclear power plant.

Ministers discussed how to achieve greater cooperation at the EU level on national measures limiting free movement during the Covid-19 pandemic, the state of play of the EU-UK negotiations, and voiced their support for the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

“The state of play of the negotiations is worrisome. At the end of the transition period, the two sides need to remain constructive and remember that the main objective is to reach an overall agreement,” said Zananavičius. “We strongly support the chief negotiator Michel Barnier and the mandate that we adopted for our negotiator as early as February”.

The German presidency also briefed the Ministers on the trilateral contacts held with the European Parliament and the Commission to secure the required consent of the European Parliament on the regulation of the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, as well as the European Recovery Instrument. The Commission also updated the Ministers on the developments concerning the rule of law situation in Poland and Hungary.