“Consensus has always prevailed in Lithuania with regard to the membership of the EU, regardless of the party in power. We cooperate with opposition parties in the Eastern Partnership countries where political forces, regretfully, lack such a consensus. Nevertheless, I hope that the Association Agreement with Ukraine will be signed during the EU Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Vilnius this November, which will allow us to have more measures of influence with respect to this country”, said Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs, during the meeting with Hannes Swoboda, Chair of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.

Benediktas Juodka, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs, agreed with him and added that “it is extremely important not to lose such country as Ukraine. Yes, it does have certain problems, but what we should seek is a compromise”.

Mr Swoboda expressed the following attitude towards Ukraine, “The citizens must understand that ensuring civil rights and open thinking is beneficial for society itself both in the Eastern and the Western world. Eastern Partnership countries are not all black and white, but Ukraine should not blackmail the EU with allegedly another alternative of a union with Russia”.

Irena Šiaulienė, Chair of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party Political Group argued, “we have to support Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other countries and attract them with our values and principles, otherwise the EU will face failure. However, we also need to understand those countries – they are currently experiencing a complicated period of time”.

“There is an explicit provision on the reset of our relations with Russia both in our Party Platform and the Government Programme.  When in power, the Conservatives chose to be completely passive on this issue although now, when in opposition, they have already started speaking about threats. However, what we need is dialogue rather than confrontation culture that can hardly be beneficial to anyone”, Ms Šiaulienė said.

In the opinion of Justas Vincas Paleckis, MEP, “some major powers and the right parties in Europe fear that such countries as Ukraine will cost too much for the EU whereas the left-wing representatives tend to support Ukraine. In the meantime, critical engagement policy is being pursued with respect to Belarus. I believe we should also involve Russia in a similar way”.

Vilija Blinkevičiūtė and Zigmantas Balčytis, Social Democrats MEPs and Aleksandras Zeltinis and Mr Juras Požela, Members of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs, Social Democrats, also participated in the meeting.

Morta Vidūnaitė, LSDP Information Centre, tel. +370 5  239 6278, mob. +370 613 01 071