In Brussels, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas participated in the meeting of Nordic and Baltic (NB6) Prime Ministers which focused on the pressing topics on the agenda of the European Council: global finance crisis, energy, climate change, EU-Russia relations, and financial situation in Iceland.

Prime Minister G. Kirkilas expressed thanks to the Nordic and Baltic Heads of Government as well as the President of the European Commission for the support in addressing the energy security issues of Lithuanian and the whole Baltic Sea Region during the working dinner.

The Head of the Lithuanian Government emphasised that the Baltic power grid interconnection plan backed by the European Commission was a positive and timely decision contributing to the enhancement of Lithuania’s energy security.

According to Prime Minister G. Kirkilas, Lithuania hopes that the EU is aware that the shutdown of the Ignalina NPP will be followed by a critical period with the absence of real projects in progress. Dependency on energy resources from a sole provider and subsequent political and economic risks are not acceptable to Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Prime Minister welcomed the efforts of the current French Presidency to tackle the financial crisis issues in a solidary way and was confident that the same solidarity would be in place while dealing with energy security issues.

Referring to EU-Russia relations, G. Kirkilas underscored that there was no need to hurry into the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) as long as Russia had not withdrawn its troops from Georgia.

The Lithuanian Prime Minister also drew attention to the financial crisis in Iceland and invited the Nordic and Baltic Prime Ministers to find ways of offering help to the country.