Macro-regionale strategieën ter discussie op bijeenkomst Litouws voorzitterschap (en)

On November 24-25, the meeting of the chairpersons of the Committee on Environmental Protection and the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities, Macro-regional strategies: development and outlooks, will take place at the Seimas (the Seimas Conference Hall, II palace). Representatives of the parliaments of EU Member States and candidate countries and the European Parliament will participate. Loreta Graužinienė, the Speaker of the Seimas, will welcome the participants. The Minister of Finance, Rimantas Šadžius, will present the results of the EUSBSR Annual Forum and Valentinas Mazuronis, Minister of the Environment, will talk about the EUSBSR's relation to other forms of cooperation in the Baltic Sea region’s environmental protection activities.

Two members of the EC will participate in the meeting: Johannes Hahn i, who is responsible for Regional Policy, will inform the participants on the future expansion and outlooks of EU macro-regional strategies, and Connie Hedegaard i, who is responsible for Climate Action, will read a report on the inclusion of climate policy into regional development strategies.

The EP’s opinions on macro-regional strategies will be presented by Danuta Hübner i, a former member of the EC and Chair of the EP Committee on Regional Development, and Andreas Beckmann, Director of the Danube-Carpathians programme at the NGO World Wide Fund for Nature, will review the environmental state of the Danube region.

On 25 November (Monday) at 1 pm the event participants' press conference will be held (at the Seimas Press Conference Hall, II palace). Virginija Baltraitienė, Chair of the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities, Algimantas Salamakinas, Chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection, Zigmantas Balčytis i MEP, Mr Beckmann, and Dionysia-Theodora Avgerinopoulou, Chair of the Greek Parliament Committee on Environmental Protection, will be in attendance.

The Meeting’s programme and more information are available on the website of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council Parliamentary Dimension, www.eu2013.lrs.lt, and the event page.

The event will be broadcast live on the LRT Culture channel and the TV programme Seimas Live and streamed on the Seimas website and the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council Parliamentary Dimension website.

On 25 November at 7.10 am Mrs Baltraitienė and Mr Salamakinas will present the event on the LRT show Labas rytas, Lietuva (Good morning, Lithuania).