Prior to the European Council, President Dalia Grybauskaitė will meet with Commission President Jean-Claud Juncker and the Prime Ministers of Latvia, Estonia and Poland. They will sign a political agreement on the synchronization of Baltic power grids with continental Europe via Poland. The agreement will allow to launch synchronization works, which will eventually ensure Lithuania's energy independence. The Baltic electricity grids will be fully disconnected from the Soviet BRELL circuit before 2025.
EU leaders will also discuss measures to counter irregular migration. While illegal EU border crossings have decreased by 95 percent since October 2015, human traffickers are trying to find new routes to Europe. In order not to have a recurrence of migration flows, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of exterior borders, improve cooperation with countries of migratory transit and origin, and to ensure a more effective return of illegitimate refugees.
The European Council will review the upcoming negotiations on the new multiannual financial framework. The Commission’s initial proposal is unacceptable to Lithuania because cohesion funds for our region are reduced too much and the process of bridging the gap between direct payments to Lithuanian farmers and the EU average is too slow. Lithuania will also seek adequate funding for strategically important synchronization and Rail Baltica projects and well as for the decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant.
The European Council intends to extend sanctions against Russia. Lithuania keeps to a consistent and principled position that sanctions must stay in place until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented.
In the run-up to the NATO summit, EU leaders and NATO’s Secretary General will exchange views on EU-NATO cooperation, the Community's resistance to hybrid threats and its military mobility. The next multiannual financial framework will provide for a total of more than 24 billion euros to strengthen the EU's security and defense.
