Europe facing new threats

At a conference on the European security culture on 30 May, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas indicated that along the known threats of today 's terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts and organized crime 's Europe faces new threats.

According to the Minister, one of the greatest new threats is the energy security problem.

The Minister said, that founding of the EU and its enlargement guaranteed peace in a greater part of the European continent.

'Wishing the EU voice to be heard widely, we have to further develop common security policy, which means that the EU countries have to be ready to spend more on it,' said the head of Lithuanian diplomacy.

However, as a possible danger P.Vaitiekūnas named also a certain fatigue, which appeared after the enlargement of the European Union.

P.Vaitiekūnas indicated that while speaking about the European security culture, we were also speaking about values. These values are named in the main documents of the EU, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

'Respect for human dignity, freedom, democratic society and genuine market economy are and should remain the basis for every European action,' said Minister P. Vaitiekūnas.

In speaking about democratic values, the Minister stressed the significance of relations with Russia. All the EU countries, including Lithuania, are interested in close cooperation with Russia's peaceful and democratic Russia, which would respect human rights, the rule of law, firmly abiding to the international law and principles of good neighbourhood, he said.