Lithuanians differ on EU-Russia talks

VILNIUS - Lithuanians differin their judgment of the country's stance on EU talks with Russia,with 26 percent justifying Vilnius' actions and 29 percent of the polled saying this decision was off.

Nevertheless, most polled inhabitants (32 percent) said they have adifficult time assuming a stance regarding the issue, with another 13 percentnot at all familiar with the situation in question.

These attitudes were revealed by a poll commissioned by the Baltic News Service and conductedby RAIT June 5-16th aiming to determine what views Lithuanian inhabitants hold on the country's decision to block EUtalks with Russiaover the Strategic Partnership Agreement.

Individuals aged 35-44 and polled residents of the three largest Lithuanian cities Vilnius, Kaunas andKlaipeda as well as college educated respondents, felt that Lithuania's decision to blockEU-Russia talks was, in part, wrong. Individuals aged 55-64 years more oftensaid this was not a justified decision.

People living in localities with a population of 2,000 - 30,000 more oftenhad difficulty expressing their opinion on the issue. Individuals, who havecompleted elementary and comprehensive education more often said they haven'theard of Lithuaniahaving made this decision.

In the end of April, Lithuaniablocked the talks with Russia, proposing to include four declarations in thenegotiations mandate, i.e. the issue of cut-off oil supply via the Druzhbapipeline, the necessity to deal with frozen conflicts in Georgia and Moldova,cooperation in solving occurrences of Jan. 13 and the Medininkai massacre aswell as support for exiled persons, who are returning to the three Balticstates.

The declarations were met and accepted so Lithuanialifted its veto and didn't interfere with the commencement of talks.

Having agreed to include issues raised by Lithuaniainto the mandate, EU's foreign ministers made a formal approval to begin talkswith Russiaover the new Strategic Partnership Agreement after they were deadlocked foralmost two years. The talks are due to start in the end of June.

A total of 1043 Lithuanianinhabitants aged 15-74 were surveyed for this study.

It should be noted, however, that data of a study commissioned by theForeign Ministry and conducted during the months of May and June, revealed thatmost Lithuanian inhabitants(from 51 to 78 percent in different questions) support Lithuania's bringing up of topical issues in EU talks with Russia.