Europe needs unity as never before – Grybauskaitė after meeting Merkel

Declining trust in the EU may further encourage the forces of populism, euroscepticism and radicalism, which would like other EU member-states to follow the UK example, Grybauskaitė said in a press release circulated by her press service.

In the president’s words, Lithuania is strongly against creating any kind of blocs inside the European Union. In these testing times for the EU, she stressed, we need to focus on areas that unite all member states and respond to the expectation of European people.

“Every effort has to be made to ensure the security of EU citizens, improve the protection of external borders, strengthen cooperation in the exchange of intelligence, combine databases for sharing information, and counter more effectively hybrid, cyber and energy security threats,” said Grybauskaitė, adding that economic well-being was key for maintaining stability and restoring the people’s trust in the European Union.

In her words, it is therefore necessary to fight unemployment, strengthen the single market, promote digital economy and reduce poverty.

The Lithuanian president also noted that incidents directed against citizens of other EU countries continued to take place in the United Kingdom. She urged to make a joint effort and take every possible action to stop them.

The issues were also discussed during European Council President Donald Tusk‘s tour of the Baltic states last week, they should also be high on the agenda of the 27th EU Summit in Slovakia in mid-September.

At Merkel’s invitation, the meeting in Berlin was attended by the leaders of Latvia, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus. The German chancellor-proposed format may be viewed as an attempt to bring positions of countries representing different regions closer together.