Since July 1st and until December 2013, Lithuania took over the Irish presidency of the European Union Council. For half a year, Lithuania will head the Council of Minister of the EU Member States. 

A few days after officially taking office, the president described the Lithuanian’s agenda for the next six months.

They are indeed many challenges: scatter the crisis, reduce youth unemployment, encourage sustainable development … But for the economy that experiences the fastest evolution in Europe, they are far from being insurmountable.

So far, some priorities have already been set:
• Find a agreement between all Member States on the budget and ensure that they will all be able to benefit from the funding, estimated in the EU budget
• Find an agreement on 70 legislative texts about the setting-up of the budget
• Develop and create, for 2015,  the internal energy, digital and services market in order to boost the EU ‘s competitiveness

The Conference on the achievement of the internal market, scheduled for November 4th and 5th, 2013 in Vilnius, will eventually decide on the most important project’s for Europe’s future
• Engage in a great digital plan for the European economy, a central issue that will be brought during the Council of Europe of October 2013 and at the European Conference on Research and Innovation (ICT2013) of November 2013
• Eventually, engage fully in the free-trade agreements negotiations with the US and Japan. And boost the cooperation between the EU and its Oriental partners
The president will therefore, during the Vilnius summit of November, sign the association agreement with Ukraine, lead the negotiations and sign the agreements with Moldavia, Georgia and Armenia.

At the end of the six months, Greece will take over, and propose its own agenda for 2014.