In his letter, the Prime Minister of Lithuania underlined a long-time cooperation of Lithuania's academic community with CERN and cooperation with the Government of Lithuania, which had begun in 2004. According to Butkevičius, this was a prerequisite for seeking membership of CERN.
Currently, Lithuania successfully cooperates with CERN in the fields of particle physics, informatics, education and medicine.
During the meeting, the President of the CERN Council, Prof. Agnieszka Zalewska welcomed Lithuania's aim of becoming an associate member of CERN. Prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN, noted that after his visit to Lithuania and his meetings with heads of state there, he saw the country's aspiration to become an associate member.
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. At CERN, physicists and engineers use the Large Hadron Collider and other scientific instruments to probe the fundamental structure of the universe and to develop the newest technology. The World Wide Web was invented at CERN.
