Even though summer is still in its full swing and many of the European Union (EU) institutions are not fully operational, it seems that Lithuanian politicians have chosen exactly the summer break to actively prepare the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in November this year.
Lithuania currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union since 1 July and working towards a closer integration of the EU and its eastern partners has already been outlined as a priority within the Lithuanian presidency agenda.
Two of the country’s top diplomats, Edminas Bagdonas, director of eastern neighbourhood policy department at the Lithuanian foreign ministry, and Vaidotas Verba, special envoy for eastern partnership at the ministry, were part of the Lithuanian delegation which visited the Bulgarian capital Sofia earlier this week.
According to information of the Bulgarian foreign ministry, the delegation met minister Kristian Vigenin and consulted the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit.
Vigenin, a former EP chair of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, stressed: “Bulgaria is among the EU countries that support the European perspective of our eastern partners”.
During the meeting with the Lithuanians, Vigenin also expressed the readiness of Bulgaria to participate jointly with Lithuania in bilateral initiatives and projects under the eastern partnership, especially in countries where there are Bulgarian minorities.
The Bulgarian foreign ministry also says that the discussions went around the implementation of the criteria by the six countries, part of the Eastern Partnership (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova).
The criticism of the initiative has increased recently, especially after in 2011 Belarus withdrew because of what it named "unprecedented discrimination". The current Lithuanian presidency on the other hand attempts to revive the Easter partnership by making one of its priorities on the first place and by bringing together all sides at the November summit.