Lithuania's Foreign Vice-Minister drew attention to the importance of the role of the UfM in addressing today’s challenges and of multilateral and regional cooperation in recovery from the pandemic. “We must continue strengthening our regional cooperation. We particularly appreciate the UfM’s action on change, education and for job creation,” said the Foreign Vice-Minister.
Germanas also highlighted Lithuania’s interest in having a stable and strong EU neighbourhood. “Our partnership must be based on the EU’s individual approach to southern partners and shared responsibility. We must also respect the core values of human rights and principles of democracy. Lithuania has gained considerable experience in implementing the Eastern Neighbourhood projects and is successfully sharing it with the Mediterranean neighbours. We are ready to continue supporting them," said the Foreign Vice-Minister.
The Foreign Ministers addressed the need to strengthen the EU-Southern Neighbourhood partnership. In addition, solidarity should be the keyword for tackling migration, as well as the economic and social disruptions in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.
The EU cooperates under bilateral, regional and neighbourhood-wide programmes with 10 partner countries in the Southern Neighbourhood: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Syria (the bilateral cooperation has been suspended since 2011 due to the Syrian conflict). The Barcelona Process aims to strengthening relations between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean countries. The Euro-Mediterranean partnership was strengthened by the establishment of the UfM in 2008 with its headquarters in Barcelona.
The UfM brings together all countries of the European Union and 15 countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean.
