Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania

Supposedly everyone is aware of it. Yet according to the Lithuanians living abroad interviewed by Respublika, nobody cares about the Presidency in other countries.

Yesterday, Algirdas Semeta, European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, expressed his gladness that Lithuania took over smoothly the Presidency of the Council of the EU. "In my opinion the start of the Lithuanian Presidency is very good. Of course, it is just the first two weeks of Lithuania's presentations both in here and in Brussels, but these presentations were successful," said Semeta. According to him, his colleagues, the member of the European Commission praised the opening events of Lithuanian Presidency; in addition, everyone underlined a high level of organization.

First Deputy Chancellor of the Prime Minister Remigijus Motuzas also assured that Lithuania attracts much more interest due to the Presidency of the EU Council. "Lithuania is very interesting. We receive calls from ambassadors, they invite us to present the Presidency in their countries, not only in the EU countries but also in other countries such as Israel, Armenia. And the EU countries show great interest. We all must take advantage of it – tourism, business, industry, associations," said Motuzas. If we believed the politicians, Lithuania's Presidency of the EU Council would be always present in foreign mass media.

Yet the reality is slight different. For example, BBC, the largest broadcaster in the world, reported only that Lithuania's Presidency had started. On July 5 it was reported that the Presidency of the EU Council was taken over by a small Baltic country that used to belong to the Soviet Union.