On the occasion of the second anniversary of the accession of the Baltic States to the European Union, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, in cooperation with International support foundation "Euroregion Livonia-Baltic“ and Friedrich Naumann Foundation, staged an international conference “The Baltic States in the European Union: Two-Year Experience and Prospects.“ This one-day conference was held on May 12, 2006 at Le Meridien Villon Hotel.

 

The goal of the conference was to bring together experts, public leaders, political analysts, business people and politicians from the Baltic States and neighbouring non-EU countries to evaluate the Baltic countries’ experience in the European Union and their opportunities and threats. The conference was also aimed at promoting better policies of the Baltic States in seeking the best results from the EU membership.

 

The conference focused on the following four topics:

 

-         Panel “Integration-related expectations of the Baltic States” was designed to explore to what extent integration-related expectations have been met and why some of them have failed.

-         Panel “The Baltic States - burden or mover of the European Union” defined the influence of the Baltic States on the European Union: what new quality the Baltic countries have brought or may bring in seeking a better European Union.

-         Panel “The position of the Baltic States on EU matters” debated the position of the Baltic States on EU matters: policy formulation and advocacy in the European Union.

-         Panel “Relations with neighbours beyond the European Union” aimed at considering to what extent EU membership has affected relations with neighbouring non-EU countries and what should be done to achieve the maximum benefit not only from EU membership but also from the neighbourhood with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

 

The event drew about 50 participants, including members of the European and the Lithuanian parliament, government officials, ministry executives, business people and representatives of major business associations, international institutions, academia and mass media.