OREANDA-NEWS. March 17, 2008. Ivars Godmanis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, Mвris Riekstiтр, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, and Kaspars Gerhards, Minister for Economics of the Republic of Latvia, took part in the meeting of the European Council which focused on issues related to the Lisbon Strategy, energy, climate and also financial market stability.

The most topical issue for Latvia in the framework of this working session was energy and climate, on which Latvia expressed its position. In the meeting of the Council, the Head of the Latvian Government stressed that the European Union must consider the particular situation of Latvia in the sphere of energy. The isolation of energy supply systems of Latvia and other Baltic States from the rest of the EU creates a necessity for enhanced cooperation among the EU Member States and for establishing interconnections.

Ivars Godmanis emphasised that Latvia approves the common EU policy and its environmental requirements for producing more climate-friendly energy, and at the same time asked to consider the particular situation of Latvia in the utilisation of renewable energy resources for energy generation, as well as in ensuring the EU’s competitiveness in the global market.

“Latvia approves the EU’s objective to become a leader in the market of a clean and climate-friendly energy, but the refusal by the largest environment and climate pollutants – China, India, Russia, the USA – to follow our objective may lead to decrease of competitiveness,” said I.Godmanis.

The above mentioned issues were also discussed on Thursday with the heads of the Nordic and the Baltic States.

The meeting of the European Council will continue today and will focus on summarising opinions of countries on the issues discussed yesterday, as well as plans to approve the draft Conclusions.