Lithuania at the forefront of internet access, sharing its expertise with the Western Balkans, Turkey and the Eastern Partnership countries

On 12 April, the first seminar marking the 20 years anniversary of TAIEX was opened by Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrius Krivas in Vilnius. Representatives could draw on the excellent expertise Lithuania built on its way to accession. The meeting provided a platform for discussion and exchange of best practice in particular on information society and media.

Congratulating the European Commission on the 20 anniversary of the TAIEX the Minister said: "I am very proud that the Commission selected my home country Lithuania to host the first anniversary seminar" and added that he hoped that "Lithuania's success story will inspire new cooperation with EU counterparts".

Lithuania is at the forefront when it comes to internet penetration and telecommunications. For the participants the meeting proved to be extremely helpful in getting information to make their sector more competitive and in line with EU standards and legislation.

"I learned a lot today especially in the field of postal services. We recently adopted a law but we still need to adopt the related legal acts. In this respect, I think the Lithuanian example is one we could follow" said Corneliu Jaloba, Deputy Director of the National Regulatory Agency for electronic communication and information technology of Moldova.

Ilir Vercuni, Director of the National Agency of Information Society said that "cyber security is a hot topic that needs to be strengthened in Albania and today's seminar gave us leads for future cooperation through TAIEX for reinforcing this aspect".

To mark the 20 years of its creation, TAIEX is organising a series of five seminars in the EU Member States. These events are meant to bring together Member State officials who experienced providing their expertise through TAIEX along with current partner or beneficiaries, each of them focussing on specific areas of EU legislation.

TAIEX Library: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/taiex/dyn/taiex-events/library/detail_en.jsp?EventID=61545