Lietuva in brief 2011-10-06

Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Evaldas Ignatavicius took part in the 6th traditional international Baltic-French seminar on security policy, which was held on Sept. 29-30 in Vilnius, reports ELTA. At the event, the deputy foreign minister stressed the importance of Euro-Atlantic cooperation in strengthening the security in Europe. The topics of the seminar included preparations for the NATO Summit in Chicago in 2012, NATO nuclear policy, allocation of powers between the European Union institutions and member states in the Common Security and Defense Policy after the Lisbon Treaty, opportunities for multilateral and bilateral military cooperation in the EU and NATO. The Baltic-French security seminar has become a tradition and an excellent opportunity for four countries to address the relevant issues, Ignatavicius said. On the second day of the seminar, the participants discussed the issues of regional security, operations and new security challenges.

On Sept. 30 Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite met with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon to discuss the policies of the European Arrest Warrant, single EU energy market, safety of nuclear power plants, Europe’s current economic situation and the EU multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020. Referring to the case of releasing a suspect in the Jan. 13 case - Mikhail Golovatov - who allegedly committed crimes against humanity, Grybauskaite said that the story highlighted cracks in the EU legal cooperation policy. The French PM said he understood Lithuania’s concern and promised to look for solutions. Lithuania’s head and the French leader agreed that only through concerted and coordinated actions will the EU member states be able to stabilize the current economic situation in Europe. Lithuania and France also agree that the application of nuclear safety requirements in the plants is one of the biggest challenges to European safety.