"I would wish Lithuania to avoid a Cabinet collapse during the EU presidency as it happened to us and we were in a very complicated situation," Nemcova told journalists after a meeting with Speaker of the Seimas Vydas Gedvilas.
The Czech Republic presided over the EU Council in the first half of 2009. In March of that year, the opposition successfully secured a vote of no confidence in the parliament, and the government was disbanded. A caretaker government worked until new general elections in October, and prime ministers also changed several times.
"The EU presidency is always a complicated period, and everything depends on how you are prepared. Vilnius and Lithuania will become the center of Europe, various meetings will take place, politicians will arrive, politicians will hold meetings, top meetings will take place. If you want those meetings to be meaningful, you need to carefully prepare for them," the Czech speaker said, wishing Lithuania success during the EU presidency.
Meanwhile, Gedvilas said he discussed energy security with the guest as well. He praised the Czechs for clearly and boldly expressing their position in favor of nuclear energy, and also regretted the fact that decisions on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Lithuania have stalled.
"They clearly said that their nation, state and people are in favor of nuclear energy, and there is definitely no opposition to the construction of nuclear power plants. They already have four reactors and plan to build more. They understand perfectly well that it's environmentally-friendly and safe energy, the parliamentary speaker said, and that it ensures energy security," Gedvilas said.
"Meanwhile, we expressed some of our thoughts on energy security, that we are going to have an LNG terminal, power links with Sweden and Poland, and we expressed regret over the fact that the issue of the construction of Visaginas nuclear power plant is taking so long. A slow process is definitely not ensuring energy security. I stressed that if we built a nuclear power plant, Lithuania would definitely be a rather independent country in terms of energy," Gedvilas said.
Members of Nemcova's delegation also met with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius. The delegation had been scheduled to visit Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city, on Thursday but the visit was cancelled due to floods in the Czech Republic. The delegation is scheduled to return Wednesday evening.
