Press release, 13 March 2013

From 6 to 8 March 2013, Algimantas Salamakinas, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Environment Protection (CoEP) and Head of the Delegation, Saulius Bucevičius, Chair of the Committee on Rural Affairs (CoRA), Valentinas Bukauskas, Chair of the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities (CoSALA), and Kristina Miškinienė, Chair of the Committee on Social Affairs and Labour (CoSA), paid a working visit to Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium.

The visit was one of the actions included in the list of preparation activities for the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.  The members of the Seimas delegation and representatives of the European Union institutions discussed the topics of the parliamentary dimension events of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council and other relevant European agenda issues within the remit of the respective Committees.

The main goal of Mr Salamakinas and Mr Bukauskas’ meeting with the European Commissioner for Environment,  Janez Potočnik, was to introduce the topics of the upcoming Presidency event concerning the EU macro-regional strategies organised by the CoEP and CoSALA, the environmental dimension of these strategies as well as the significance of the event. Janez Potočnik was officially invited to deliver a presentation at the parliamentary dimension event to be held on 25 November 2013. Shale gas risk evaluation, the issue highly relevant to all European countries and Lithuania in particular, that is considered to be one of the 2013 key priorities of the European Commission, was discussed at the meeting with Mr Potočnik. The Commissioner confirmed that drafting of legal acts related to extraction of non-traditional hydrocarbons is envisaged in the EC Work Programme for 2013 and stressed that all the works of exploration and extraction of shale gas have to be carried out in line with the provisions of the EU legislation currently in force and with the approval of local communities.

During the meeting with Hubert Gambs, Head of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn, Mr Bukauskas introduced the parliamentary dimension event titled Macro-regional strategies, their development and prospects to be held on 24–25 November 2013. The significance of macro-regional strategies for the European Union member states and prospects of their funding were discussed at the meeting.  Mr Bukauskas extended an official invitation to Commissioner Hahn to deliver a presentation at the above event. Mr Gambs noted the high relevance and importance of the theme of the event and informed the delegation that the European Commission was planning to release a communication on regional strategies that could be discussed during the event.

At the meeting with Georgios Stavrakakis, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Regional Development of the European Parliament, Mr Bukauskas and Mr Salamakinas discussed the trends of the activity of the EP Committee and prospects of regionalisation development. They also looked into the issues of macro-regional strategy viability and officially invited Danuta Hübner, Chair of the Committee for Regional Development, to deliver a presentation at the parliamentary dimension event to be held in November.

At the meeting with Janusz Wojciechowski, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament, the issues of the common agricultural policy, which are relevant for Lithuania, were discussed. The Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament noted that their Committee had presented its conclusions on these issues as far back as January and noted that most EP provisions coincided with Lithuania’s basic negotiating positions. He also expressed satisfaction with the enhanced EP’s role in the EU legislation process.

The CoRA Chairman also met with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos. During the meeting he presented the parliamentary dimension event to be held in Lithuania as well as its main themes – implementation of the common agricultural policy and small farming. The Commissioner expressed his firm belief that the negotiations over the common agricultural policy reform would have been finalised by the Lithuanian Presidency. Therefore, the issues of the implementation of the reform would be extremely relevant. One of the EC initiatives – European Neighbourhood programme for agriculture and rural development, which among others is also dedicated to the Eastern Partnership countries, was also presented during the meeting.

At the meetings with László Andor, European Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion,  Jonathan Hill, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth,  and  Zoltan Kazatsay, Commission Deputy Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion,  Kristina Miškinienė, presented the theme of the Lithuanian Presidency event to be organised by the CoSAL on 10-11 November 2013 – employment sub-themes. Ms Miškinienė officially invited the EC members to deliver presentations at the event. Commissioner Andor agreed on the relevance of the theme and stressed that unemployment, primarily youth unemployment, is the issue of critical importance at the moment. The topicalities of the European agenda: importance and implementation of the recently adopted Communication Moving Youth into Employment and Recommendations On establishing a Youth Guarantee; the proceedings of deliberation of social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union as well as the proposal regarding Youth on the move card were at the focus of attention during the meetings.

The delegation of the Seimas Committee Chairs visited the Renewable Energy House and met Jan Geiss, Secretary General of EUFORES, The European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources. The agenda of the round-table discussion to be held in Vilnius on 22 April on the issue of sustainable energy, other organisational details as well as the current EU and Lithuanian renewable energy sector policy and the latest legal acts were briefly discussed at the meeting.

Prepared by:

Rasa Matusevičiūtė

Adviser to CoEP(EU), tel:+370  5 239 6190, e-mail: [email protected]

Dalia Aleksejūnienė

Adviser to CoSAL (EU), tel: +370 5 239 6776, e-mail: [email protected]

Rasa Mačiulytė

Adviser to CoSALA (EU), tel.: +370 5 239 6907, e-mail: [email protected]

Gabija Jurgelytė

Adviser to CoRA (EU), tel: +370 5 239 6951, e-mail: Gabija.[email protected]