Prime Minister to visit Brussels

14 October Prime Minister Gediminas is leaving for Brussels to take part in the meetings of the European Council together with President Valdas Adamkus and Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas.

Tuesday evening, at the invitation of the President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas is going to have dinner together with the counterparts or government representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Sweden. Major items to be discussed during the dinner: energy security (with particular focus on power bridge projects) and climate change.

The European Council are going to discuss the current economic and financial crisis, energy security, climate change, EU-Russia relations, developments in Georgia and Belarus, and hear Irish Prime Minister’s report on the reasons for the negative outcome of the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

On Wednesday, before the European Council, the Prime Minister is going to take part in the meeting of the Party of European Socialists as well as to meet with the Prime Ministers of the Nordic and Baltic States (NB6) and his counterparts from the Visegrad Group to discuss key items on the European Council agenda.

During his meetings, the Prime Minister is going to highlight particular risk for energy security that Lithuania and the entire Baltic region are going to face as of 2009, and is going to seek that the EU expressed its clear support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. On climate change, the Prime Minister is going to point out exceptional circumstances of Lithuania and the need for a compensatory mechanism.

The Prime Minister returns to Vilnius on Thursday. During the visit, the Prime Minister is going to be replaced by Minister of Transport and Communications Algirdas Butkevičius.