Lithuania insisted that its conditions for signing a mandate for EU negotiations with Russia be met. As reported by Lithuanian radio, this is the result of the negotiations between the four foreign ministers, which took place the day before in Vilnius.

They were attended by: Petras Vaitekūnas from Lithuania, Dimitri Rupel from Slovenia, Radoslaw Sikorski from Poland and Carl Bildt from Sweden. They were later joined by the country's President Valdas Adamkus.

“The solidarity demonstrated by 27 states and the European Commission is not empty words,” the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry told reporters after the meeting. According to P. Vaitiekūnas, all four of Lithuania’s demands were “reflected in writing”, and an agreement was reached to continue negotiations on this topic with the remaining 23 states.

We are talking about Lithuania blocking the mandate for negotiations on concluding a new partnership and cooperation agreement between Russia and the EU, as a result of which the corresponding document was not adopted at the recent summit of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Lithuania demanded that the text of the mandate include a reference to four declarations containing preliminary demands of Lithuania to Russia, namely: on the resumption of oil supplies through the Druzhba oil pipeline, on the provision of legal assistance in the investigation of certain criminal offenses, on constructive participation in resolving “frozen” conflicts in Moldova and Georgia and on reimbursement of expenses for the return to their homeland of Lithuanian citizens forcibly deported to Russia during the years of totalitarianism.

Negotiations with Russia may begin at the EU-Russia summit on June 26-27 this year. The EU would like the new agreement with Russia to cover a full range of issues, including trade, energy, migration, human rights and policy cooperation.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia (presiding in the Council of the European Union) Dimitri Rupel stated following the negotiations, during the discussions “a golden mean was found.” Now we can begin discussing a new partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia, the politician is quoted as saying by Reuters .

Lithuania gives the go-ahead for negotiations on an agreement between Russia and the EU