Energy, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Railways, Transport

Taavi Roivas, Algirdas Butkevicius and Laimdota Straujuma in Vilnius. Photo: flickr.com

During the Baltic Council of Ministers' informal meeting in Vilnius today, the key items on the agenda included preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga, security, energy, transport, and Latvia's Presidency at the Council of the European Union, as the State Chancellery's Communications Department informed LETA.

Following the meeting, Straujuma stressed that the Baltic countries' resolve to jointly implement the Rail Baltica project was of major importance. "It will be a physical road connecting us with Central Europe, and that is as important as continuing work on implementation of various energy security projects is," said the Latvian premier. Bolstering energy security in the Baltic region is highly important to Latvia, she added.

The Baltic countries should also cooperate more closely in defense and bolstering the external border, including through joint procurement tenders, said Straujuma. Speaking of the developments in Ukraine, all three premiers agreed that Europe had to remain united and insist that the Minsk agreement must be implemented. If not, there will be no point to talk about lifting the EU sanctions against Russia.

As for the Eastern Partnership Summit, Straujuma said that concrete cooperation plans for every of the Eastern Partnership Countries will be discussed at the summit. Easing the visa regimes and economic cooperation will also be high on the summit's agenda. In Straujuma's opinion, the summit will send a strong message, on behalf of Europe, that the close cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries would become closer yet and that such cooperation was important for the future of Europe.

The Baltic premiers' informal meetings take place every year in one of the Baltic countries. The previous meeting was held in Tallinn, the 2013 meeting was held in Jurmala.