Valionis Visits Sweden

Lithuanian foreign minister Antanas Valionis traveled to Stockholm on 6 June to attend a meeting of the prime ministers of the Baltic states, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in place of Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, who was on an official visit to Ukraine. The main subject of the meeting was preparations for the EU summit to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 20-21 June. The prime ministers also decided to send a letter to European Commission President Romano Prodi underscoring the need for joint action to ensure the environmental safety of shipping in the Baltic Sea. In talks with Swedish parliament Chairman Bjorn von Sydow, Valionis talked about bilateral cooperation and the work of the EU Convention on the Future of Europe. Von Sydow said that there should not be any difficulties in the parliament's ratification of the EU accession accords, which is scheduled for November.