The meeting, attended by state delegations from 28 EU member states and 6 Eastern Partner countries, took stock of what has been achieved and drew guidelines for the initiative. President Dalia Grybauskaitė discussed the effort to achieve deeper rapprochement with the EU with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine and Prime Minister of Moldova Pavel Filip.
According to the President, significant results have been achieved during the four years following the Vilnius Summit and “Maidan” – Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have become associated partners of the EU with successfully functioning EU visa-free regimes, enhancing political and economic cooperation as well as people-to-people relations.
Nevertheless, according to the President, the future of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia is in their own hands. Further prospects depend on Eastern partners’ desire, political will and consistent work in implementing reforms that are vital for people’s well-being.
The President underscored that it was necessary to continue fighting against corruption, enhancing justice, ensuring the rule of law and improving governance and public administration.
During the meeting, it has been agreed that the three associated partners – Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – that set more ambitious goals, will further deepen cooperation with the EU and, notably, through receiving political, expert and financial support.
Twenty deliverables for 2020 were adopted. They include deepening EU cooperation in the areas of common security and defense policy, countering hybrid threats and cyber-attacks, enhancing strategic communication and resilience to propaganda.
In Brussels, a Comprehensive and enhanced partnership agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Armenia was signed.
At the plenary session, the President also raised the issue of the Astravyets nuclear power plant. According to the President, cooperation with Belarus is being complicated by the facts that the aggressive, offensive and hostile to the West military exercise “Zapad” was held in its territory and that the international nuclear safety and transparency requirements are ignored in the construction of the Astravyets nuclear power plant.
The President also underscored that the Russian company “Rosatom”, engaged in the construction of the nuclear power plant, was highly distrusted as it had denied and concealed a number of dangerous incidents, including the recent leakage of radioactive material in Chelyabinsk. Therefore, Lithuania raises this issue at the highest level in the EU for Europe to exercise all its influence for ensuring nuclear safety and transparency.
In the margins of the Summit, the President met with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss readiness for Brexit negotiation.
