The yesterday‘s working dinner of the Prime Ministers of NB8 focused on the EU-Russia relations and energy security issues.
According to G. Kirkilas, the Baltic Sea Region should stay competitive, environmentally-friendly and closely cooperative, especially dealing with the EU Neighbourhood and EU-Russia relationship issues. G. Kirkilas was convinced that the EU-Russia relations could not normalize unless Russia met its commitments regarding the situation in Georgia. Russia had only partially complied with the September 8th agreement. The talks on the new EU-Russia partnership agreement should not be renewed until Russia withdrew its troops to their pre-August 7th positions.

The Heads of Government later discussed the political situation in Belarus. In G. Kirkilas’ opinion, the EU opened an opportunity for Belarus to turn back on the West by rescinding visa restrictions to Belarusian officials for 6 months. G. Kirkilas reiterated that the reduction of visa prices for Belarusian citizens could initiate the development of democratic and civic society in the country.

Referring to the energy security issue, the Lithuanian Prime Minister said that the Lithuanian Government seeks the integration of the national energy sector into the EU market by carrying out a number of energy projects. In this context, nothing is more important to Lithuania than energy security and long-term economic competitiveness, and therefore the country hopes for solidarity and major decisions at the European Council in December. Kirkilas emphasized that Lithuania welcomed the initiative of the European Commission to draft the Baltic Interconnection Plan. In the Prime Minister’s opinion, power bridges to Sweden and Poland would help decrease the dependence of the Baltic States on energy supplies from Russia. The Prime Minister reiterated that Lithuania was ready to start building the power bridges.

This morning the Prime Minister returns to Vilnius.