"What we managed to achieve in the first ten years of the Eastern Partnership was largely due to the ambitious goals set at the beginning. We must ensure that also our future goals are not less ambitious and mobilize our partners to continue the ongoing reforms,” said the Minister L. Linkevičius.
Among such possible goals, the Foreign Minister highlighted the deepening of the sectoral integration of the Eastern Partnership countries with the European Union and the goal of the most ambitious partners (Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova) to become an integral part of the EU's internal market.
“We must enable those Eastern partners, who have taken on much greater reform commitments and signed their Association Agreements, to achieve more in their relations with the EU. We support their European choice,” said Lithuania's Foreign Minister.
According to the Minister L. Linkevičius, further successful implementation of the Eastern Partnership policy requires even greater effort of the Eastern Partnership countries to carry out the obligatory reforms, while the EU and its member states have to provide all the necessary financial and expert aid.
On the margins of the conference, the Lithuanian and Polish Foreign Ministers met with 6 students from the Eastern Partnership countries, who had participated in an essay writing competition launched by the Ministers and had written the best essays on the future of the Eastern Partnership. The students - one from each of the Eastern Partnership countries - were invited to attend the high-level conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership.
