News

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė at the European Council meeting this weekend:
Stabilization of the EU economy will be possible only if financial populism is refused

French-Lithuanian happiness in Brussels this weekend. Dalia Grybauskaitė and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sunday, October 23, Brussels - The heads of state or government of the European Union countries, gathered in the capital of Belgium, discussed the EU economy revival and finance stabilization measures and debated how to solve the issues relevant for the euro zone.

According to the President, the European Union has all the necessary measures to cope with the existing economic hardships - the member states should only find the political will to implement such measures.

"Only responsible financial policy and compliance with strict fiscal discipline as well as promotion of mutual economic cooperation will enable the European Union to ensure a sustainable economic growth and avoid financial populism," Dalia Grybauskaitė said at the European Council meeting.

Read more:
www.president.lt

Nicolas Sarkozy to David Cameron in Brussels this weekend:

"We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings."

David Cameron of Britain and Nicolas Sarkozy of France have had a furious bust-up in EU-27 summit, with the French president expressing rage at the constant criticism and lectures from UK ministers, reported “The Guardian”.
Sarkozy bluntly told Cameron: "You have lost a good opportunity to shut up." He added: "We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings."

 
Michael Campbell was secretly recorded trying to buy weapons for a terror group and arrested in sting operation.

MI5 shows Michael Campbell inspecting weapons and negotiating a deal with a police agent posing as an international arms dealer. Link to this video

A suspected member of the Real IRA who was arrested in an elaborate MI5 sting operation has been found guilty of attempting to buy a cache of arms and explosives designed to equip the dissident terror group for a bombing campaign.

Michael Campbell was jailed for 12 years by a judge in Lithuania who had seen secretly-recorded videos of the 39-year-old negotiating to buy weapons unaware that he had been set up by the UK intelligence agency, working alongside Lithuanian authorities.

The court was told Campbell paid up to €10,000 (£8,700) for the cache, which included rocket-propelled grenades, detonators, a high-powered sniper rifle and 12kg of Russian-made explosives.

Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/21/real-ira-jail-lithuania-sting?newsfeed=true

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanian prosecutors won’t reopen a probe into whether two CIA prisons built in the Baltic country held prisoners, despite new information provided by human rights organizations, they said Friday.
Human rights groups Amnesty International and Reprieve last month claimed that al-Qaida suspect Abu Zubaydah was flown on a Boeing 737 from Morocco to Lithuania in February 2005 — a flight previously unknown to Lithuanian authorities. 

Officials from the organizations called on prosecutors to reopen their investigation, which they closed in January for lack of evidence.

Reprieve said that it had supplied prosecutors with names of individuals — including CIA officials, Lithuanian handlers, and eyewitnesses — who could provide testimony about the flight from Morocco.

But the General Prosecutor’s office said in a statement Friday that the new information was neither significant nor essential to the case.

Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/lithuanian-prosecutors-not-to-reopen-probe-into-cia-prison-despite-new-evidence-from-ngos/2011/10/21/gIQAReCU3L_story.html

 
Juan Verde.

Even though Lithuanian market is rather small, it is nevertheless attractive for its strategically convenient geographical location and development opportunities. According to the heads of the first U.S. certified trade mission in Lithuania, the visit of representatives of 20 large companies shows a growing interest in running business in Lithuania.

Juan Verde, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Department of Commerce, the initiator of the trade mission idea, says that this visit is part of the new trade strategy of the United States. "For instance, the majority of trade missions this year were conducted to such countries as Russia, Turkey, Germany, and the UK. Therefore, this visit to Lithuania is exceptional as we believe that cooperating with Lithuanian companies, we will be able to grow and expand into third countries," he said.

The U.S. official also stressed that Lithuania's strategic location allows developing ties not only with Western markets, but also with Eastern and Scandinavian countries, in which the U.S. business is very interested.

Read more:
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/good_for_business/?doc=46307

 
Lithuania’s planned new nuclear power plant is to be built by Japan’s Hitachi Corporation. Construction costs are expected to be at least € 3.0 to 5.0 billion ($ 4.5 to 7.4 billion).

A court in Tokyo has ruled Japan’s Hitachi liable for over $1 billion in damages resulting from an accident, and subsequent loss of profit, at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant’s (NPP) Hitachi-made ABWR reactor. Boiling reactors, to which the ABWR series belongs, have earned their share of infamy with Chernobyl’s explosion and the disaster at Fukushima– but they have also proven challenging both in operation and repairs. Still, Hitachi continues to promote ABWRs for export construction, including in Lithuania, where it hopes to build a new station to replace the shut-down Ignalina.

Read more:
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/hitachi_lithuania

 
Ostrovets NPP? No thank you! atomby.net
 

Belarusian officials on Thursday said they intended to move quickly to build a nuclear power station in the north of the country, despite worries in adjacent Lithuania that the plant might be dangerous.

Belarusian Vice Minister of Energy Mikhail Mikhailyuk in comments reported by the Interfax news agency said workers already were clearing territory in preparation for the project, and that he expected actual construction of the Ostrovetsky station to begin in early 2012.

Read more:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1668611.php/Belarus-to-ignore-Lithuania-worries-go-forward-with-nuke-reactor

Planned nuclear plants in Belarus and Kaliningrad. The Visaginas plant is planned built in Lithuania.
Illustration: Stratfor.com.

Belarus hopes to receive an answer from Lithuania pertaining to the construction of the Visaginas nuclear power plant.
"Lithuania still has not given answers to Belarus about results of the environmental impact assessment [EIA] of its future nuclear power plant," Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk told reporters on Friday.
He reaffirmed that during consultations with Lithuania, Minsk, in turn, had replied to Vilnius' questions about construction of Belarus' first nuclear power plant.
Mikhadyuk pointed to the maximum openness of all preparatory works for the construction of Belarus' NPP. They were supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Belarus discussed with the European Commission and IAEA the issue linked with Lithuania's complaints against the location of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in the Ostrovets district (Grodno region).
Besides, "there were no claims to Minsk about compliance of international norms and laws in the implementation of the NPP project," the deputy minister said.

Read more:
http://www.utilityproducts.com/news/2011/10/1520780177/belarus-hopes-to-receive-answer-from-lithuania-re-visaginas-npp-project.html

Lithuania’s National Tourism Board is not going to back down. After Stephen Colbert reviewed the board’s Lithuania perfume harshly earlier this year -- “smells like a goat slaughtered at a lesbian drum circle” -- and everyone had a laugh at the country’s expense, it seemed logical that the board would not be bringing up the eau de Eastern Bloc again, that the tonic would be put on a shelf somewhere next to Alan Cumming’s “Cumming” and “Bruce Willis,” the manliest of all scents. Not so much.

The board has announced that it will be handing out the perfume at the World Travel Market event beginning next month in London. European travel agents, who are certainly clamoring for the spritz, can get their sample at the nation’s booth, where they will also have a chance to rub shoulders with celebrity.

Travel Daily reports that the Mayor of Vilnius will also be appearing at WTM, where he will no doubt get the celebrity treatment. A Youtube video of Arturas Zuokas crushing an illegally-park luxury car with a tank went viral earlier this year, sending a strong message about civic-mindedness and reminding everyone that Lithuanian Mayors have tanks at their disposal.

Zuokas also floated a plan this week to buy a Greek island and turn it into a tourist resort. For those keeping track, Lithuania is over a thousand miles from Greece.

Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/lithuania-worlds-goofiest_n_1004759.html

Bloomberg
IMF Says Lithuania Needs Measures to Meet 2012 Budget Target

By Milda Seputyte
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Lithuania needs to implement spending and revenue measures equal to 1.25 percent of economic output to meet its 2012 budget-deficit target, the International Monetary Fund said.

Gross domestic product is slowing because of weaker export demand in the euro region, and “given the upside risks to the fiscal deficit, a contingency plan consisting of further measures should be prepared,” James Morsink, the IMF’s mission chief, told reporters in Vilnius today. The Washington-based lender expects Lithuania’s economy to expand 3.5 percent next year.

Read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-10/imf-says-lithuania-needs-measures-to-meet-2012-budget-target.html

The mayor of Lithuania's capital city, Vilnius, has come up with the suggestion of buying a Greek island as a colony that would serve as a tourist resort.

There is no doubt that the Greek economy could do with the boost a cash injection would bring and the mayor of Vilnius in Lithuania has a suggestion that would add to the coffers. Arturas Zuokas, mayor of Lithuania’s capital city, posed the wonderful idea of purchasing a Greek island for the Baltic country to use as an extra tourist resort. Instead of Lithuanians spending their vacation on foreign shores and their Lithuanian litas elsewhere, they could holiday in a Lithuanian colony sitting on a Greek island.

Read more: 
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/312515#ixzz1aHcHlrxh

An officer of the Belarusian Embassy in Lithuania explained to policemen that he had got extremely tired at work and fell asleep behind the wheel.
On October 6 at about 9.15 p.m. in Vilnius at the crossing of Naugarduko and Algirdo Streets a counsellor of the Belarus Embassy Yaraslau Diktiyeuski in a car VW Jetta with green diplomatic number plates crashed into a standing Renault minibus, which banged into a BMW car, DELFI reports.
The Belarusian diplomat driving VW Jetta has not been injured, and there were no people in the other cars. As said by the policemen, the diplomat was dead drunk, but he resfued to be tested by an alcohol-screening device. He explained to the policemen that he had become extremely tired at work and fell asleep behind the wheel.

Read more:
http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2011/10/7/43375/

France's energy giant EDF has refused a Russian offer to build a nuclear power plant, Lithuania's Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said after meeting his French counterpart Francois Fillon.

Kubilius said Fillon confirmed during a visit to Vilnius Friday that state-owned EDF had rejected Moscow's invitation to construct a plant in its Baltic territory of Kaliningrad, which borders Lithuania.

Kubilius told reporters that Fillon told him "very clearly" that "Russia had intensively called on EDF to take part in building the Kaliningrad nuclear power plant and EDF refused".

Vilnius has criticised the planned plant, claiming security requirements have not been met in the project.

Russia rejects the charge and says the plant, meant to be online by 2016, would be the safest in the world, reports LETA/ELTA.

Lithuania shut down its only nuclear plant – a Soviet-era facility – in 2009 under the terms of its 2004 European Union entry.

It aims to build a new one by 2020 with fellow ex-communist EU members Poland, Latvia and Estonia, and is currently in talks with Japanese-US conglomerate Hitachi GE.

Read more at:
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/energy/?doc=46617

Lithuanian officials claimed that 14 unarmed Lithuanians were murdered by Golovatov and his more than 1.000 KGB and army soldiers in Vilnius on the 13th of January 1991.

VILNIUS -- Lithuania's has returned its ambassador to Austria after the two countries came to an agreement on justice and international arrest warrants.
Lithuania pulled its ambassador to the country earlier this year when Austria detained but then set free Mikhail Golovatov, who is accused by Lithuania of taking part in a 1991 massacre. Lithuania has put out an international arrest warrant for Golovatov.
"I believe, that this case, so sensitive to Lithuania, has become a good lesson for Europe and boosted its solidarity. However, we should not stop fighting for a joint European attitude towards history, no matter how difficult the path may be,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis.
Read more at: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/29691/

29 September 2011
The Associated Press
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Russia's decision on its leadership change next year has effectively buried any hopes of a renewal of relations with the West, Lithuania's prime minister said.
"No one should have illusions about how Russia will be ruled for decades to come," Andrius Kubilius told Lithuanian Radio.
Lithuania is among Russia's harshest critics in the European Union and NATO.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided to reclaim the presidency next year, setting up the possibility that he could rule Russia until 2024. In nominating Putin, his United Russia party also approved his proposal that President Dmitry Medvedev take over Putin's current role as prime minister.

Read more:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/lithuania-says-forget-russia-reset/444486.html#ixzz1ZLvK8cDg
The Moscow Times

The Lithuanian government is “not ambitious” enough in executing its target for reducing the budget deficit to below 3 percent of gross domestic product next year, said Mindaugas Leika, chief economist at Lithuania’s central bank.

The government should expand wealth taxation by introducing taxes on real estate to boost revenue, Leika said in a video interview with the magazine IQ published on its website. It should also increase the fight against the “shadow economy” and boosting efficiency at state-owned companies, he said. 

The government is aiming to narrow the 2012 budget shortfall to 2.8 percent of GDP next year from an estimated 5.3 percent shortfall this year. The Cabinet must submit its 2012 budget plan to the parliament by Oct. 17. 

Lithuania should consider closing some of its 23 universities to help trim budget spending and raise the quality of the education system, Leika said.  

Reducing health-care benefits for the wealthy may also help balance the budget, he said. 

Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/lithuania-government-not-ambitious-with-budget-economist-says.html