EuropeanVoice.com: Lithuanian perspectives

Published July 11, 2013 at 8:19 am

Lithuania's presidency of the European Union's Council of Ministers will reach its symbolic peak in late November, when it brings the EU's member states and its post-Soviet neighbours together in Vilnius. There are six neighbours in the Eastern Partnership, but one will dominate the summit: Ukraine.

Ukraine’s hope is that it can persuade the EU to accept an association agreement and a free-trade deal. In Linas Linkevicius, Lithuania’s foreign minister, it finds a strong advocate for a closer relationship with the EU. “I cannot imagine a Europe whole and free without Ukraine,” he said on July 3, 2013.

He also believes that action is needed quickly if Ukraine is to move towards Europe. “In physics, there cannot be a vacuum,” he said. “This vacuum will be filled by eastern [Russian] connections.”