Lithuania’s Foreign Minister thanked Mogherini for paying attention to the Eastern neighbours in the context of the current challenges facing Europe, but also stressed the need for the European Union to be more active.
“Firstly, the EU has to implement its commitment to grant visa-free travel for citizens of Georgia and Ukraine. Moreover, the European Commission can and should make more active use of the existing instruments and resources, when helping these countries implement all the necessary reforms. Delays and silence only increase disappointment among people in partner countries, which so far have actively championed the idea and values of Europe,” said Linkevičius.
As regards security and defence issues, Mogherini assured Linkevičius that the most important task was to maintain the unity of the EU, so informal consultations with member states were underway in order to be able to present an admissible and ambitious implementation plan on security and defence in November. Linkevičius stressed that the new initiatives in the field of the CSDP must not erode the unity of the EU, contribute added value when working with the existing defence structures of NATO in Europe, and that the EU and UK must remain close.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister also called on the High Representative to draw more attention of the EU to the construction of the unsafe NPP in Belarus and presented existing violations, the lack of transparency and cooperation with Belarus.
