Tag: Lithuania

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says her country's first time at the helm of the EU will be "a presidency you can rely on. We will deliver what we promise to deliver,” she tells EurActiv in an exclusive interview. Lithuania succeeds Ireland on Monday (1 July) in the six-month presidency.

Lithuania, which takes over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July, has given Ukraine extra time to meet the Union's conditions for signing a long-delayed association agreement.

EU leaders agreed at a summit last week to finalise negotiations for the EU long-term budget next spring, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, a former EU budget commissioner, said in an exclusive interview.

The European Commission announced yesterday (13 December) that international donors, among which the largest is the EU, have decided to suspend the funding of one specific decommissioning project in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania.

Lithuania's opposition Social Democrats, the Labour Party and the Order and Justice Party are set to form a government coalition following a second round of the parliamentary election held yesterday (28 October). But President Dalia Grybauskaitė said the Labour Party, accused of fraudulent bookkeeping, was “not fit” to be part of a cabinet.

Lithuania will hold a referendum on whether to build the Visaginas nuclear energy plant when voters go to the polls on 14 October to elect members of Parliament. Meanwhile, Bulgarians will probably vote on the future of its Belene nuclear station before the end of the year. 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's appointment of Sergei Makey as foreign minister represents a hardline stance concerning the Europeans and will likely worsen relations between Minsk and Brussels, says Stratfor.

Lithuania, which closed its Ignalina nuclear power plant as part of its EU accession in 2004, warned that it needed more generous European funding for the site's decommissioning for many years to come. EurActiv reports from Ignalina.

The big priority for Lithuania is to have a healthy economy, and then maybe later the country will consider joining the eurozone, Audronius Ažubalis, Lithuania's foreign minister, said in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Germany.

Lithuania and the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi concluded today (30 March) a concession agreement for the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, paving the way for the next phase of project development of what is seen as one of the most advanced nuclear generation projects in Europe.

The European Commission must find a compromise on the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in one of the Baltic countries, the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said after they failed to reach agreement last week. 

Some cuts to the EU's long-term budget for the period 2014-2020 may be necessary given current financial realities, but severe cuts would reduce the European Union's capacity to act as a global player, Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Ažubalis told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

NATO has drawn up secret plans to defend the Baltic states against any Russian threat, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported today (7 December), citing US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

Latvia holds its first election tomorrow (2 October) since a severe economic crisis and the vote could determine whether the Baltic state sticks firmly to its IMF-led programme of austerity measures and eventual euro entry in 2014.

Europe has grown more quickly than the clothes it is wearing, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė told EurActiv in an interview, stressing the need to redesign common policies and aim for more monetary and fiscal coordination.

The Lithuanian authorities have asked the European Parliament to waive the parliamentary immunity of Victor Uspaskich MEP, a millionaire businessman and a former economy minister, EurActiv has learned.

The Brussels miniature park ‘Mini-Europe’ will this Sunday (23 August) organise an event commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the “Baltic Way”, the longest ever human chain which in 1989 became a potent symbol in the independence struggle of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the then Soviet Union.

In a swift move to replace commissioners recently-elected to the European Parliament or office in their member states, Poland and Lithuania have nominated Paweł Samecki and Algirdas Šemeta to join European Commission President José Manuel Barroso's team.

EU Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected by a landslide as the first female president of Lithuania, the Baltic nation battling a deep recession, official results showed on 17 May.

A referendum to extend the use of the Ignalina nuclear power plant to 2012 took place in Lithuania yesterday (12 October) alongside legislative elections which are propelling populist politicians into office who are opposed to closing the Chernobyl-type plant in December 2009.

A group of Eastern European countries, led by Hungary, have asked for a revision of their national targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. EurActiv reveals the details of their alternative proposal.

A new basic treaty between the EU and Russia may be given the green light at a 29 April General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg. Only one of the 27 EU countries - Lithuania - has expressed reservations ahead of the meeting.

New route is set to help Russia avoid transit through Lithuania.

On account of its 2.63% March 2006 inflation, Lithuania has for now failed to qualify for the euro zone, while Slovenia is all set to adopt the euro in January 2007.