Vice-Minister of Finance: "EU countries in the eastern border region need targeted decisions"
As an EU eastern border country, Lithuania faces additional pressure and therefore needs tailor-made decisions and additional investments to strengthen critical infrastructure, connectivity and innovation capacities. This is underlined by Januš Kizenevič, Vice-Minister of Finance, attending the European General Affairs Council in Brussels.
"Cohesion Policy has proven its ability to respond to new strategic challenges, and we welcome additional flexibilities for the EU's eastern border regions. Lithuania took swift action by reprogramming more than 10% of the Investment Programme – to channel funds to new, urgent priorities. However, this has cost part of the financing of long-term objectives such as investment in social security, the green transition and innovation. Therefore, in view of the new EU financial period 2028-2034, action at EU level is needed to adequately address the double challenges we face," J. Kizenevič states.
The Vice-Minister emphasizes that in the future financial perspective long-term goals, stability and crisis response must be integrated into the new policy architecture.
He considers that the EU Facility proposed by the EC could strengthen the capacity of Cohesion Policy to respond to new challenges. However, in the event of crises, EU-level funds should be mobilised as a matter of priority and national unallocated funds could be used as a complementary tool if necessary.
He also proposes considering the possibility of mobilising part of the funds earlier than mid-term to ensure efficient planning and implementation of investments.
According to him, as Cohesion Policy priorities expand, it is important to ensure that the Member States retain sufficient flexibility to meet their specific needs.
"The future financial perspective should combine a stable long-term architecture with integrated flexibilities to ensure both strategic consistency and rapid response to changing circumstances," J. Kizenevič says.
The Vice-Minister also pointed out that the new single fund model must genuinely simplify the system and not create additional administrative burden.
Last updated: 27-02-2026
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