Lithuania considers EU as a tool to get money and punish opponents

The latest Lithuanian political initiatives could leave to breaking basic policies of the European Union.

As we know, the idea of European unity led to the creation and development of the European Union. The EU was established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.

Today, the European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and home affairs; and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Due to its global influence, the European Union is often described as an emerging superpower.

The EU does not focus only on the development of its member states, but on the involving neighbour countries in its sphere of influence. Thus, within the EU the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed to promote prosperity, stability and security within the EU’s neighbours and to avoid new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours. This Neighbourhood Policy is designed not only to assist neighbour countries but to benefit from cooperation with them.

At present, the EU works with 16 partners: its immediate neighbours by land or sea — Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Lithuania became a full-fledged member of the European Union on 1 May 2004 and still economically is not among the strongest members. By the way, it is one of the largest beneficiary of the EU financial support. It is used to get large sums of money on its development.

It seems as if Lithuania continues to consider the EU as a non-dissecting source of money and as a tool to punish those countries which act contrary to its national interests.

Lithuania and Poland called for EU sanctions for Belarusian companies supporting the Lukashenko regime, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said on Tuesday, November 17. The existing sanctions «have not yet produced the result we expected», the Lithuanian leader said.

Nonetheless, there is a result which Lithuania did not expect and which is not beneficial for the EU as an organization. Vladimir Makei, the Belarus minister of foreign affairs said that “Belarus does not see much point in working fully within the Eastern Partnership initiative. All these measures are only a response to the destructive steps that our European partners have taken towards Belarus.”

So, Lithuania, calling to impose sanction on Belarus, achieved the opposite effect. It is ruining the basic aim of the EU Neighbourhood Policy.