The Third Meeting of the Trilateral Inter-Parliamentary Assembly Ukraine-Lithuania-Poland to be dedicated to the Issue of Energy Security of Central and Eastern Europe
This statement was made during the
meeting of Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Irene Degutiene,
Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic
of Lithuania. After the
consultations with the Polish colleagues, I.Degutiene
suggested this topic for the Assembly. V.Lytvyn supported this initiative,
characterizing this issue as "global and topical."
The meeting of the Trilateral Inter-Parliamentary Assembly Ukraine-Lithuania-Poland is to take place in Vilnius on October 7-8, 2010.
V.Lytvyn and I.Degutiene believe that the Assembly should be preceded by the discussion of this matter among the experts and representatives of the non-governmental organizations of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland.
The Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine highly appreciated the level of strategic partnership and constructive political dialogue between Ukraine and Lithuania. He declared that bilateral relations should adopt new standards. V.Lytvyn stated that several institutions, i.e. Inter-Governmental Council on Cooperation between Ukraine and the Lithuanian Republic and the Inter-Governmental Ukrainian-Lithuanian Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific and Technological Cooperation, should coordinate collaboration in different directions.
The Head of the Parliament called
for boosting commodity circulation between the countries.
The Parties also called for further development of inter-parliamentary cooperation within the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Seimas of Lithuania, and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly Ukraine-Lithuania-Poland.
The Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas stated that Ukraine "has always been a strategic partner of Lithuania." She called for "filling strategic partnership with practical contents." I.Degutiene deems necessary to boost bilateral cooperation in the field of investments and projects on energy and transport.
According to I.Degutiene, Lithuania
aims at further development of constructive dialogue and is willing to assist Ukraine
on the way towards the European integration. She emphasised readiness to accept
the delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians in Seimas to exchange the European
integration experience with the colleagues from the specialized Committee on European Matters.
The Parties also called for establishing cooperation between the universities of the countries, students exchange and strengthening of bilateral cooperation in the sphere of culture.
Summing up the results of the
meeting, V. Lytvyn stated: "It was an utterly essential and instructive
conversation." According to him, our states are following a ‘road map´ for
cooperation and preparing a package of new documents on further cooperation.
"We are interested in the process as our states have historical ties and common
past; hence we are interested in your guidance to the European Union. European
orientation and cooperation with EU is a non-alternative way for Ukraine",
V. Lytvyn declared.
He deems necessary to remember that Ukraine should do a lot of ‘home tasks´ to achieve this aim.