"We think that Lithuania and the other Baltic countries are very important partners. We have good relations with the Baltic countries and with Lithuania in particular, but we would like to strengthen these relations," the minister told BNS on Monday.
"It's very important to work closely with Lithuania on the issues of the European policy. For instance, very concretely – one priority for Lithuania is the Eastern Partnership. We have the same goals as Lithuania and the EU with the countries of Eastern Partnership. We also have direct projects with these countries, we would like to cooperate more," he said.
According to Burkhalter, Switzerland supports Lithuania's accession talks with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
"We welcome these accession talks and we support Lithuania. We would like to have these good relations which for us are very important not only during the EU presidency but afterwards as well," the minister said.
Also on Monday, the Swiss minister met with Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius. According to Burkhalter, they discussed labor market restrictions for EU citizens during the meeting but, he adds, it is not a real problem.
"We discussed very shortly that because it's not a future problem, it is only for one year. (...) We don’t make any discrimination, we have a lot of, a lot of people from the EU zone, working in Switzerland and the limitations for the long-term permit is only for some months now," the Swiss minister said, adding that "it's not a real problem."
In May, the Swiss government decided to extend the validity of a labor market article restricting work permits for certain EU citizens of all 27 member-states to 12 months. The EU later slammed the move.
According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Linkevičius has said after the meeting with Burkhalter that the Lithuanian EU presidency is striving for an efficient and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Switzerland.
Linkevičius also invited Swiss companies to look into business opportunities in Lithuania more actively, thanked Switzerland for its financial assistance to Lithuania and other countries that joined the EU after 2004. The Lithuanian foreign minister expressed his belief that cooperation program would be sustained in the future.
When speaking about multilateral cooperation, Linkevičius thanked Switzerland for its support to Lithuania’s aspirations to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and to Lithuania’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2014-2015. The foreign minister also promised support to Switzerland’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2014.
