An intense agenda is set for her visit to Brussels. Before the Council meeting, the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and the European Commission will sign political guidelines for the synchronization of the Baltic electricity grids with continental Europe via Poland. The guidelines include the provision that synchronization must be implemented by 2025 at the latest and agree on a timetable for the implementation of this project.
The EU leaders will also discuss and adopt the guidelines on the EU future for 2019-2024, which set out the main Community development priorities. It is highly important for Lithuania that our proposals to strengthen the response to hybrid threats and disinformation as well as ensure fair trade and competition with third countries given the realistic assessment of threats to national security were taken into account and a fairer distribution of financial resources to promote research is ensured. These guidelines also mention the fight against climate change and the ‘open door policy’ for the Eastern partners seeking EU membership.
The Council in Brussels will also focus on improving the economic and social situation of the member states. The EU leaders will adopt country-specific recommendations by the European Commission. Country-specific recommendations for Lithuania emphasize the need to reduce income inequality, poverty and social exclusion, improve tax collection and the social benefits’ system, improve the quality of education and training system as well as health care system, channel economic policy and investments towards promotion of innovation, boosting energy and resource efficiency, and development of sustainable transport and energy connections.
Leaders will also extend economic sectoral sanctions against Russia related to the failure to implement the Minsk agreements and discuss the situation of illegal ‘passporting’ in Eastern Ukraine and the Donbas region. At the initiative of Lithuania, the other Baltic States and Poland, the EU is urged to take measures so that unauthorized Russian passports issued to residents of Donetsk and Luhansk would not be recognized.
The date of the negotiations on the new EU seven-year budget should be approved, the number of the European Commissioners, maintaining the principle of ‘one commissioner per country’, revised and the possibility of opening EU accession negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania discussed.
In the run-up to the United Nations Summit on climate change in New York this September, the EU leaders will confirm EU commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and discuss long-term ambitious climate change targets.
On the second day of the Council meeting, the President will take part in the euro area summit, where strategic decisions should be made on the establishment of a new financial instrument aimed at supporting structural reforms and enhancing the competitiveness of the euro area countries.
