During his working visit to Lithuania, EU Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud Algirdas Šemeta met with Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, on 14 December. The meeting, which focused on the preparation for Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and EU developments, was also attended by Bronius Bradauskas, Chairman of the Seimas Committee on Budget and Finance.
The EU Commissioner received both praise and requests from the Speaker of the Seimas. Mr Gedvilas expressed his appreciation of Mr Šemeta’s achievements as the latter was named by International Tax Review as the second most influential person in the world in international taxation. Mr Gedvilas also inquired Mr Šemeta about assistance for specific solutions to some burning issues in Lithuania.
The Speaker of the Seimas said that, apart from structural support from cohesion funds and financial assistance for the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, direct payments to farmers is one of the three questions which are essential to Lithuania in the negotiations on the future EU budget.
The EU Commissioner quipped that “there is nothing agreed until everything is agreed” in the talks and advised Lithuania to negotiate more actively and intensively with net contributors, i.e. the countries that contribute the most to the EU budget.
The discussion also touched on one more issue – permeable borders – which is topical in Lithuania. Mr Šemeta assured that the new long-term EU framework aims to coordinate national actions in connection to financing border infrastructure and thereby solving the problem of border permeability. He stressed that the more active is the country, the more support can be obtained.
Mr Gedvilas thanked Mr Šemeta for his visit and expressed the hope that the EU Commissioner will not only urge his colleagues to visit Lithuania more frequently next year, but will also provide valuable advice in the run-up to Lithuania's Presidency of the Council.
Mr Šemeta said that “it is our common concern that Lithuania does well during its Presidency of the Council. Cyprus is proof of what a small country is capable of.”
“Financial discipline is essential. Lithuania’s macroeconomic situation is not a cause for worry at the moment,” the EU Commissioner emphasised.
Erika Straigytė,
Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, Secretariat of the Speaker of the Seimas, tel: +370 5 239 6004; +370 698 42376
