On Thursday Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius took part in the informal session of the European Council in Brussels. For the first time the session was chaired by the President elect of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

The European Council agenda was slightly disturbed by heavy snow. Having been delayed for almost four hours, the session first discussed the EU support for Greece, which led to the EU leaders offering support to the debt ridden Greece. The decision was made to overthrow growing concerns about the possible spread of economic crisis hence affecting other members of the eurozone.

According to Adviser to the Prime Minister Loreta Zakarevičienė, France, Germany and other major economies expressed their concern about the crisis in Greece. The countries discussed support options for Greece: bilateral financial aid from members of the eurozone, credit lines, loan guarantees, and bailout of the state bonds. The European Council approved a declaration on political support for Athens. Concrete proposals should be revealed following the meeting of the eurozone finance ministers on 16 February.

The Lithuanian Prime Minister Kubilius called the informal session of the European Council a successful one, since the EU member states had expressed their solidarity with the crisis-stricken Greece. While presenting Lithuania's position on the outline of the EU 2020 strategy, Prime Minister Kubilius pointed out that control safeguards and mechanisms should be created to shield the EU member states from similar situations like the one seen in Greece.

According to the Adviser to the Prime Minister, Lithuania is in favour of stronger economic policy coordination in the EU member states and in principle supports the document; however, creation of energy market and development of power links should be among major objectives of the EU 2020 strategy.

“With a view to successful implementation of the EU 2020 strategy, strong political commitment both on the level of the EU and that of the member states is needed to ensure crucial role by the European Commission and the European Council while supervising implementation of the strategy. According to Lithuania, it is important that objectives of the EU 2020 strategy were related with the EU budget priorities. Implementation of the EU 2020 strategy will largely depend on successful synergy among EU and national policies as well as various financial instruments", said Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.

Following the session, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy expressed his delight at the usefulness and necessity of informal sessions of the European Council; however, he thought that in future sessions should focus on one specific topic so that more opinions could be heard and quality decisions made.