Litouwen: EU moet eensgezind optreden in energieonderhandelingen met Rusland (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU needs more solidarity in negotiations with Russia and to stay open to Turkish and Ukrainian membership in order to improve security in its eastern neighbourhood, Lithuanian prime minister Gediminas Kirkilas told EUobserver in Brussels on Friday (8 September).

"I think we still have some lack of solidarity in the European Union in our relations with Russia," the ex-defence minister said during his first visit to the EU capital after taking office in July. "When we act together with all the European Union countries we are, of course, much stronger."

He urged the 25-member bloc to find a "common voice" in its ongoing talks with Russia on a new pact to govern post-2007 energy and political relations, saying "My experience from the Kaliningrad negotiations is that when we act together in the EU, there are a lot of successful results."

Mr Kirkilas played a leading role in tense talks between the EU, Lithuania and Russia in the run up to 2004 enlargement, when Moscow threatened to block NATO expansion unless Lithuania found a way to keep Russian military goods flowing to the Russian EU enclave of Kaliningrad.

"The EU is a democratic union and EU countries can have their own opinion, but you see what the consequences of this are," he explained, in reference to an EU split over a German-Russian plan to build a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, with Lithuania, Poland and Sweden objecting to the move.

The Lithuanian leader - a 55-year old pipe smoker popular at home for his down-to-earth manner - showed awareness of the stark realities of European politics, saying "Lithuania is a small country and Russia is a big country" but he stressed the value of Lithuania's history with Russia for the EU bloc.

"Lithuania has a lot of experience with Russia, we can share this experience," he stated.

Lithuania split from the Soviet Union in 1991 and continues to have tricky relations with Vladimir Putin's Russia - in July, Russian oil firms turned off a pipeline supplying Lithuania's Mazeikiu Nafta petrol refinery, leading the company to scale down output.

The Russian suppliers have said pipe repairs could take up to a year, with Lithuanian and Polish diplomats seeing the move as a thinly-disguised attempt to derail Polish energy firm PKN Orlen's planned €1.8 billion purchase of the plant.

"Of course some Russian companies are disappointed by this deal," Mr Kirkilas explained. "But for us it was purely commercial. PKN Orlen offered us the biggest amount of money - that's all. From our country, there is no politics in this."

Russia part of bigger picture

The prime minister indicated that any EU-Russia pact should form part of a wider European strategy to cultivate strong relations with its eastern neighbours, aligning himself with Poland on the benefits of Ukrainian and Turkish EU membership.

"I am still in favour of enlargement of the EU because it is in our interest to have good neighbours, countries which share common values," Mr Kirkilas stated.

"I don't know when this [Ukraine's EU entry] will happen, but the way to the EU, in this case, [keeping Ukraine on] the way to the EU is a much more important issue," he said. "The EU has to support Mr Yanukovych, we have to consider seriously his message that...he will go into the EU."

Ukraine's post-Orange Revolution EU-oriented foreign policy has come under a question mark since pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych became prime minister in July, with Mr Yanukovych set to visit Brussels next week.

"Concerning Turkey, I am also in favour," Lithuania's Mr Kirkilas stated. "Seeing this issue as a former defence minister, I can't imagine what would happen to Turkey if the EU resigned from [Turkish] membership," he explained, citing a potential worsening in relations between the EU and Islamic powers.

"Turkey right now is playing a very positive role. Of course there are some problems, but in general a very positive role," he stated. "We cannot say that we could not accept Turkey as a Muslim country. I think that's the wrong way."