Brussels, 30/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Pascal Lamy will visit Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn on 31 March and 1 April to speak to government, business and civil society about the commercial consequences of their accession to the EU. The European Commissioner for Trade will end his trip with a visit to Finland on 2 April. On 31 March, Mr Lamy will meet the Lithuanian Ministers for Foreign Affairs and the Economy, Mr Valionis and Mr Cesna, and the President of the Parliament Mr Paulauskas, and Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian Commissioner designate and current Finance Minister. In Latvia, Mr Lamy is to meet Prime Minister Emsis, Economy Minister Mr Lujans, and the Finance Minister Mr Spurdzins. Lastly, on 1 April, he will hold talks in Estonia with the Prime Minister Mr Parts, Foreign Minister Mr Ojuland, and Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications, Mr Atonen, and the Estonian Commissioner designate Siim Kallas.
A proportion of these visits will be given over to exchanges of views with Estonia, Latvian and Lithuanian businesses on trade and enlargement in general, and more specific issues such as the extension of the EU/Russia partnership and co-operation agreement to the ten new Member States from 1 May. There will also be the opportunity to discuss ongoing negotiations under the Doha development programme. Mr Lamy will stress that accession will not have a "big bang" effect on business in the three Baltic States. In a press release published on 30 March, the Commission said that "enlargement has already happened in terms of the opening up of trade between the EU and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, thanks to the European agreements". On the eve of his visit, Pascal Lamy declared that "Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are already part of the European trade family", adding that he "hopes to talk to their government, businesses and civil society about how to move our common interests forward in all areas of trade policy". The Commission also believes that "joining a club of 25 members will have considerable leverage for Baltic businesses on a global scale". The EU and these three countries share the same concept of the objectives of Community trade policy, regionally and within the WTO.
In Finland, Pascal Lamy will meet Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Minister for External Trade and Development Ms Lehtomäki, and MPs and Finnish representatives of business and civil society.