Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas assured the audience at the Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy that Lithuania was committed to further development of the Common Security and Defence Policy and said that security and defence issues were among Lithuania’s Presidency priorities. He equally outlined the key matters to be discussed by Heads of State and Government at the December European Council.

The Minister said the December Council meeting should be used to communicate to the wider public that defence mattered for the sake of EU’s security and economic prosperity. Defence spending, further European cooperation on defence, the determination of the key EU security interests, the review of the European security strategy, the enhancement of the EU ability to respond to cyber, energy and maritime security challenges, the deployability and efficiency of EU battlegroups were highlighted by Mr Olekas as some of the most important topics for discussion.

In view of the recent developments in the EU’s Southern neighbourhood, the Minister of National Defence highlighted the need to engage the neighbourhood countries into operations under the Common Security and Defence Policy as a matter that demanded urgent debate: “I would like to highlight the enthusiasm of the Eastern partners in this regard. Ukraine is already taking part in ATLANTA operation, while Georgia and Moldova have recently pledged their contributions. The EU should actively encourage such contributions from partners and offer their military a possibility to serve under the EU flag, be it in operations or battle groups.”

According to the Minister, as far as defence is concerned, Lithuania is putting a particular emphasis on military energy efficiency in the armed forces and the EU armed forces are among the largest energy consumers in Europe.

“Therefore, we should look at the impact of energy consumption on defence budgets and military effectiveness and develop a comprehensive energy efficiency strategy for our armed forces. We need solid political guidance which is consistent with and complementary to both the EU energy objectives and the on-going discussion on the role of foreign policy in supporting EU energy policy,” Mr Olekas said.

The Minister also welcomed the growing role of the European Commission in the area of defence: “The European Commission is also becoming a very important player in ensuring comprehensive EU action in domains such as energy, cyber and space, and by possibly facilitating multilateral defence cooperation.”

For the full text of the speech by the Minister of National Defence (in Lithuanian), please click on the link.

Asta Markevičienė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6202, e-mail: [email protected]