President of the Republic of Lithuania participating in her first session of the European Council strongly defends interests of the Baltic countries and other new Member States of the EU at the commencing discussion among the European leaders concerning the common position to be upheld in the upcoming world-wide meeting in Copenhagen on the issue of mitigation of consequences of climate change.
President of the Republic of Lithuania participating in her first session of the European Council strongly defends interests of the Baltic countries and other new Member States of the EU at the commencing discussion among the European leaders concerning the common position to be upheld in the upcoming world-wide meeting in Copenhagen on the issue of mitigation of consequences of climate change.
Talking to the international and Lithuanian media, the President underlined that most of the EU's new Member States shared the view that they should have a lower burden of future payments under environmental agreements to take, especially when it comes to paying for third countries which are biggest polluters.
"Europe is a leader in nature preservation, but for us, Lithuania and other new Member States, the basis on which future contributions are payable is not favourable, especially bearing in mind that Kyoto agreements were made in the nineties. All ongoing discussions are very technical, but we seek to make sure that the burden of payments is distributed among countries as fairly and proportionately as possible with due regard of how much individual countries are able to shoulder, of their current economic capacities, and of how heavily they pollute", the President of Lithuania said.
The European Council is also set to discuss the EU's economic revival plan, the status of external relations, and the situation in Afghanistan, as well as to approve its strategy towards the Baltic Sea region.