Baltic Prime Ministers priase new EU energy target

  • 2011-02-11
  • Oskars Magone

The three Baltic prime ministers met in Tallinn at the annual meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers.

TALLINN - The prime ministers of the three Baltic States have praised the new 2015 target for creating a common EU energy market at the annual meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers.

"Having by 2014 a single energy market in the EU, this is very important," Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said at a press conference following the meeting. "We need to have liberal, competitive market in the Baltic region... they need to be interconnected with European markets."

The annual meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers took place in Tallinn on Feb 10 and 11. The heads of government of the Baltic states used the opportunity to discuss issues such as the creation of a common energy market, the promotion of innovations and the development of a digital internal market.

The prime ministers also stressed the need to consolidate some of the various new energy projects that have been proposed in the Baltic states, particularly with regard to the separate LNG terminals that are planned in each country.

"Three or more than three of these terminals are too much for the Baltic states. We must use our funding... more efficiently," said Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.

The meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers is organized by Estonia within the framework of its presidency of the Baltic Council of Ministers in 2011. The Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM) is an institution for intergovernmental cooperation between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It was established on June 13, 1994. The BCM is responsible for continuous cooperation at the countries’ executive level.