Visits

Visit by President Dalia Grybauskaitė to Berlin and Brussels, 23-24 June

Invited by German President Christian Wulf, President Dalia Grybauskaitė visited Berlin, after which she went to Brussels to attend a two-day meeting of the European Council.

In their bilateral meeting German President Christian Wulf and President Grybauskaitė discussed energy security, bilateral cooperation and EU financial policy issues.

According to the President of Lithuania, Germany understands Lithuania's aspirations towards energy independence and security and German support has been greatly valuable in seeking that the EU leaders adopt decisions important for the Baltic states, i.e. to create, by 2015, a single European energy market and eliminate energy islands.

"Energy independence is the key priority of the state of Lithuania. Therefore, support from EU Member States is particularly important for Lithuania for the implementation of power, gas and transport projects that will guarantee energy independence of the Baltic states," President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

Discussing the issue of nuclear safety, the Lithuanian and German Presidents underlined that energy security of the region was possible only provided that safe functioning of nuclear power plants in the EU and the neighboring countries was ensured.

"Nuclear safety is a shared responsibility of us all. Open and benevolent cooperation would further strengthen mutual trust in the international community," President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

The EU leaders have already taken account of the President's calls expressed in a letter of May 30 to take concrete measures to make the EU neighboring countries to follow international safety and environmental standards in their nuclear power plants. The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has raised these issues in his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the EU-Russian Summit on June 9-10.

Much focus in the meeting of the Presidents was placed on Lithuanian-German cultural cooperation: joint initiatives to present more widely the cultural heritage of Karaliaučius (presently, Kaliningrad) and Lithuania Minor to Europe. The Heads of State also agreed to promote joint trilateral projects with Russia in the area of cultural tourism, by presenting works by K. Donelaitis, Vydūnas and Thomas Mann to readers worldwide.

President Grybauskaitė invited President Christian Wulf to come for a state visit to Lithuania.

This was the first bilateral meeting of the Lithuanian President with the new German President elected last summer.

In the afternoon, the Lithuanian President departed to Brussels to attend the European Summit.

The European Council gathered for two days agreed to the European Stability Mechanism, approved the European Commission's guidelines to the EU Member States, decided on support to Greece and discussed migration regulatory measures in the Schengen Area.

According to the President of Lithuania, the guidelines from the European Commission to Lithuania approved by the European Council are valuable but they should be seen only as an orientation of which way to go, leaving it to the country to decide which means and measures it should employ to stabilize its economy.

"Concrete measures, particularly in the area of taxation, are a matter of national competence of each individual Member State. Therefore, the guidelines approved by the European Council for Lithuania do not include the recommendation made previously to introduce a tax on cars," President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

According to the President, Europe is willing to help Greece, but the Greek Government must adopt an efficient reform plan as soon as possible and to take resolute actions to settle the situation in the country.

"Financial discipline is, first and foremost, important for the country itself. Greece must start managing its finances and the support provided to it responsibly because debts will have to be repaid sooner or later and the burden of debt will fall on all people of Greece," President Grybauskaitė said.

The President also underlined the euro-zone may not exist without financial discipline. All countries must abide by the rules equally and implement their commitments responsibly.

Concerning migration problems, the European leaders underlined the free movement of persons within the Schengen Area was a fundamental freedom of the EU and one of the best achievements of European integration, and any restriction of this freedom could only be imposed for strictly limited period and when any other instruments have proved to be ineffective.

The European Council gave a positive mark to Croatia's progress in the EU membership negotiations and agreed that the negotiations should be finalized by the end of this June.