Visits

Visit by President Dalia Grybauskaitė to Brussels, 17 June 2010

President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė went to Brussels for a one-day working visit, to attend the European Council Summit.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė and other European leaders discussed major EU policy issues - the EU's Strategy 2020 and economic coordination and financial supervision measures to be taken in Europe to stabilize its economy and finances.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė underlined at the European Council meeting that there was no need to amend EU treaties in order to consolidate European finances and tighten fiscal controls; instead, the EU Member States must strictly follow the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact with no reservations.

„Lithuania supports the initiative to strengthen economic policy coordination and supervision. There is no need to amend EU treaties in order to tighten financial controls, but Member States must follow the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact in a responsible manner and without applying any mitigating reservations. We support the initiative to strengthen responsibility of EU Member States for discharging their commitments," President Dalia Grybauskaite said.

According to the President, the complicated financial situation in Spain does not threaten stability in the euro zone and the overall economic situation in Europe, but, should the need arise, Spain, like any other country, could apply for support from a special support fund.

Talking about prospects of implementation of the EU Strategy 2020, President Dalia Grybauskaitė stressed the importance of the need that the same measures be implemented not only by EU Member States but also by G20 countries.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė called the decisions adopted by the European Council strategic and important for Lithuania and for the whole European Union. The Heads of States gathered in Brussels agreed that all Member States will perform stress tests on their banking systems in the effort to stabilise financial markets. According to President Dalia Grybauskaitė, testing in Lithuania will be performed by the central bank and the Ministry of Finance. "The test is necessary to provide financial markets with full information on the banking systems of the Member States in order to put an end to speculations which, as Spain's case shows, are absolutely unfounded," the President said.

The Lithuanian leader also welcomed the European Council decision to strengthen the European Stability and Growth Pact by imposing sanctions on the EU Member States for failure to comply with the requirement set in the Pact to keep budget deficit below 3 per cent. Concrete sanctions, President Dalia Grybauskaitė said, will be proposed by finance ministers and presented to heads of states in a European Council meeting in autumn. The European Council also agreed to introduce a system of levies on banks with a view to enhancing their responsibility. The funds to be collected in such levies will be used to create a reserve to be used in a time of crisis. According to the President, these strategic decisions will help consolidate stability of financial markets and mitigate or prevent financial crises and their painful consequences in the future in all Member States of the EU, including Lithuania.

The European Council supported the initiative proposed earlier by the President of Lithuania and included in its Conclusions a provision that efforts should be made to address bottlenecks that constrain growth such as underdeveloped infrastructure and lacking energy and transport connections. "Energy objects such as power and gas bridges have been recognised on the highest level as Europe-wide priorities, which means they will be monitored and financed as a priority. I am happy that Lithuania's interests were fully taken into account," the President said.