The President emphasized Lithuania‘s position on funding of cohesion policy and expectations to bring direct payments to Lithuanian farmers closer to the EU average.
“Lithuania is prepared to contribute to the implementation of the EU strategic agenda by focusing on tackling climate change and development of innovation. These priorities are also highly important to our country in the implementation of the welfare state model. The implementation of ambitious plans however needs sustainable funding of new EU priorities such as climate change and innovation as well as EU cohesion policy and alignment of direct payments to Lithuanian farmers with the EU average,” the President said after the meeting.
The President also reminded that he expected the EU to follow its commitments by allocating adequate funding for the decommissioning of Ignalina NPP and effective functioning of Kaliningrad transit scheme.
Principles for the formation of the EU Transition Fund, the distribution of Horizon funds, management of the EU border protection and European neighborhood issues were also addressed at the meeting.
The President said that the meeting was constructive and positive. “Our opinion was heard and Lithuania’s problems were well understood by the leadership of the Council, however, we must admit that there are 27 countries involved in the budget debate, so there is a lot of negotiating to be done in the coming Council meeting on February 20-21, as well as during the following working sessions of the European Council,” the President added.
The President of the Council is holding meetings with member state leaders to hear their expectations and proposals for the multiannual financial perspective.
