(Hina) - Lithuania has made progress in involving the civil society in decision making and is sure that Croatia will also achieve headway but it must seek its own recipe, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Rolandas Krisciunas said in Zagreb on Tuesday at a conference on the importance of the European Union.
The topic of the Zagreb conference called "Why is the European Union Important?" focused on the engagement of nongovernmental organisations in the decision making process in the EU and in preparations of each member-state's positions, comparing the experiences of Lithuania which joined the bloc 10 years ago with newcomer Croatia's experience.
Deputy Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Joško Klisović described as extremely important the participation of non-governmental sector in formulating relevant positions which would then be presented to the EU, while head of the European Commission Representation in Croatia Branko Baričević said it was a challenge not only for Croatia and Lithuania, but the EU as well.
The conference was held during the implementation of the 250,000-euro twinning light project on strengthening the capacity of Croatia's foreign and European affairs ministry as a national co-ordinator of EU affairs.
The project, which is a part of the IPA 2010 programme, is being conducted with the assistance offered by the Lithuanian foreign ministry, with the European Commission covering 90% of the project's financial needs and Croatia the rest.