H.E. Mr. Vidmantas Purlys:

I thank members for all the questions. Questions relating to the economic situation, instability and unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, form one package of issues that are top of the agenda in the EU and in the minds of leaders and politicians in EU member states. In my presentation, I also put an emphasis on the economy and employment. In particular, youth unemployment is at the core of our priorities. There are no specific Lithuanian priorities in this regard. This is all about continuity and the sense of urgency in this area. We are taking over from Ireland and will continue in pushing forward whatever decisions are there to alleviate or stabilise the situation or address unemployment. Further building of economic and monetary union, creating the banking union, implementing all the instruments that have been put forward among us in Europe like the European semester and all the other relevant documents and above all, agreeing on the multi-annual financial framework and giving the budget for Europe for 2014 are really important objectives to have the money flowing into the concrete programmes so that such initiatives as the youth guarantee and others can be adequately financed and spread out across countries.

Lithuania is also very interested in availing of this opportunity since unemployment is also a problem there. It is decreasing at the fastest rate in Europe but is still around 13%, and higher for youth unemployment. There are further initiatives, including apprenticeships, the posted workers directive and some others which we see as moving in the direction of helping to deal with that issue.

We have significant energy relations with Russia, which is one of the biggest suppliers of energy to the European Union. We want that relationship to be stable, predictable and based on all the rules we have in the EU the World Trade Organisation and other relevant forums. Over-reliance on one supplier is not a good thing, so for countries such as Lithuania, which is very dependent on one external supplier, especially in the gas sector, it is important to have viable alternatives. We are building bridges with the rest of the EU to provide these alternatives and running a number of projects to reduce our energy dependency. There are many other related issues including energy efficiency.

The end of the political cycle in the EU and nearing the completion of the Commission mandate is a factor that impacts on our Presidency. There are many initiatives on the agenda and we counted approximately 500 files at different levels of maturity. In co-operation with the European Commission, the European Parliament and other member states, we need carefully to establish the most important priorities. We had our three-year programme launched by Ireland, Lithuania and Greece. That provides an 18-month framework. Ireland has its own priorities and has adopted many important decisions, including EU-US trade and banking union. We will continue to build on that and work on all these important files.

Trade with the US is important for the EU and Ireland, and very important for Lithuania, given the size of our country and our exposure to international markets. We are an open, trading country and will work very vigorously to move those negotiations forward. There was a meeting on Monday in Washington which launched these negotiations, which were agreed under the Irish Presidency. We will work hard to proceed on that. I do not want to prejudge any timelines but there is a full commitment on our side to move ahead with US trade negotiations.

I am not aware of the dual passports issue so maybe we can have that discussion and clarify that. Regarding stateless persons, I am not aware of it as an issue in Lithuania. When Lithuania was re-established in the 1990s, citizenship was granted to all our citizens regardless of nationality, so there are no stateless persons in Lithuania. We do not have that issue there.

Neighbourhood policy is very much the priority for the Lithuanian Presidency. When we speak about the EU as a global partner we firstly think about asserting our influence in our neighbourhood. What is beyond our immediate borders is extremely important, be it the Eastern Partnership, the Mediterranean or the Russian Federation. We must see that we have the right policies in place, that we encourage our partners to move closer to Europe and on a good European path in their development so that our relations are stable. We must ensure they have their European future and move on to closer economic integration, becoming part of the internal market and getting as close as possible in political terms to the EU. It falls under the Lithuanian Presidency to arrange a summit of EU partnerships that brings together all EU leaders and leaders from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and three south Caucasus countries, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. This summit is an opportunity to strike some important strategic decisions vis-à-visthese countries such as an association agreement with Ukraine, provided Ukraine addresses some of the issues that Europe asks it to deal with. These are European countries and they are our neighbours, and there are good economic prospects for co-operating with them. It is extremely important to have these countries developing in a way that ensures a good European market economy and the protection of human rights and the rule of law.

Kaliningrad Oblast is also a neighbour to the west. That is an important partner, as is the whole Russian Federation, so we have close ties with this region on the municipalities level and there are opportunities for tourism and cultural relations. We are working on getting those relations on a good, stable footing and exploring the possibilities for co-operation there.

We are very much a pro-enlargement country and we welcome the European Council's decision to begin accession negotiations with Serbia. We hope these negotiations will begin under our Presidency. The major agreement we negotiated with Serbia was ratified by all countries and we have to start implementing that. Other western Balkan countries are at a different level of relations with the EU and we hope they will proceed consistently towards the objective we set in Thessaloniki many years ago. The destiny of these countries is within the EU so the work must be done on the ground to provide conditions for the EU to move ahead with negotiations. We see potential to upgrade relations with a number of countries, including the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. We will be working to see that there is as much progress as possible, given the conditions on the ground and the framework of discussions and consensus we can see within the EU.

Regarding prisons, I do not have anything to add to what I said in reply to Senator Reilly's inquiry.

If she provides me with more information on relevant documents from any reputable international organisations in which the conditions are described as degrading or inhumane I will seek answers in Vilnius on whether there is non-compliance in this regard.