Press release, 10 June 2013

“Lithuania will soon face major challenges as the Presidency of the Council of the largest ever European Union. Lithuania and France, on the other hand, are bound together by a strategic partnership. In 2007, when I was on a visit to Paris in my capacity as Prime Minister, the first thing President Nicolas Sarkozy offered to me was to sign a bilateral strategic partnership agreement”, Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, said at the meeting with Thierry Repentin, Minister Delegate for European Affairs of the French Republic.

Lithuania and France established a strategic partnership on 4 September 2009, after the Presidents of both countries signed a political declaration providing for enhanced cooperation in the EU in various areas, including but not limited to energy, security and economy.

The meeting between Gediminas Kirkilas and Thierry Repentin mostly focused on youth unemployment. The French Minister Delegate for European Affairs presented a joint proposal by France and Germany to address the problem of youth unemployment by allocating special funds in the future MFF of the EU for 2014–2020.

The priorities of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014–2020 and EU integration prospects for Eastern Partnership countries were also discussed at the meeting. Gediminas Kirkilas expressed his appreciation that the Lithuania Presidency will be the first in the EU to hold the EU parliamentary conference on economic and monetary union, which was initiated by France.

Gediminas Kirkilas emphasised the close cultural ties between France and Lithuania. He recalled Romain Gary, Vilnius-born French novelist of Jewish origin, whose 100^th birth anniversary will be commemorated next year. “Romain Gary, as a bridge between cultures, connects Lithuania, France and and Litvaks”, Kirkilas noted.

Morta Vidūnaitė, Assistant to Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, tel: +370 5 239 6278, mob: +370 612 01121; e-mail: [email protected]