Lithuanian Permanent Representative in Geneva Meets with UNECE Executive Secretary
On 24 October the Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Andrius Krivas, paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Christian Friis Bach. At the meeting, the Ambassador expressed Lithuania's appreciation for UNECE activities in setting norms and standards and identifying good practices in such areas as environment, transport and others. UNECE supervision of the implementation of international instruments in the field of environment protection is also of high importance to Lithuania, as two of them, namely the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions, are in the focus of public attention in Lithuania because of the risks stemming from the unsafe Astravets nuclear power plan construction project in neighboring Belarus.
Ambassador Krivas reminded that Lithuanian experts are very concerned about numerous aspects of the Astravets project implementation which fail to meet the requirements of the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions. Such aspects include the choice of the construction site, lack of information about the project's environmental impact, serious inaccuracies in the information provided by Belarus so far, etc. The Lithuanian Ambassador asked for UNECE leadership's support in getting Belarus agree to the formation of an international expert commission in order to review the Astravets project, as was recommended by the Espoo Convention Implementation Committee.
UNECE Executive Secretary Bach gave a positive assessment of Lithuania's involvement in many areas of UNECE activities and stressed in particular close mutual cooperation in environment protection and residential land-use planning. The Executive Secretary emphasized the importance of environmental implications of decisions regarding the Astravets project. He expressed the intent to touch upon these questions during his upcoming meetings with Belarusian officials. Christian Bach thanked Lithuania for continued active engagement in the UNECE work and underlined his organization's readiness for further close cooperation, particularly in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
