Lithuanian President to attend Eastern Partnership summit in Riga

EU leaders and representatives of the Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine – will gather in the capital of Latvia which currently holds the Presidency of the EU Council.

Eighteen months after the last summit in Vilnius, EU leaders and Eastern partners will meet to discuss the geopolitical challenges facing Europe today and ways to respond to them, as well as progress in implementing free trade agreements with Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The summit in Riga will address concrete measures to help EU’s Eastern partners implement major reforms, strengthen economy, promote democracy and human rights, and fight corruption.

Also on the agenda are ongoing joint projects and furthering cooperation for promoting people’s mobility.

The final touches concerning the summit will be put during a working dinner on 21 May. Taking part in the working dinner will be the heads of state and government members of the 28 EU member states, Presidents of the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament, as well as highest representatives of the six Eastern Partnership countries.

Guidelines for further cooperation will be discussed on 22 May. During a plenary session, the participants will sign a joint declaration of the summit.

Participating in the meeting, as planned, will be German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Czech President Miloš Zeman, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Slovak President Andrej Kiska, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti, and other leaders of EU member states and Eastern Partnership countries.

At the summit, the EU will be represented by European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, and other EU officials.