Ms Moret and her delegation are travelling to the Baltic to learn more about the measures being taken to deal with COVID-19 and the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. They will also discuss the EU’s response to the crisis with the authorities of the Baltic states, as well as security and energy policy, and e-governance in Estonia.
The official visit also provides an opportunity to foster bilateral dialogue with these EU member states and to discuss the next steps regarding the institutional agreement between Switzerland and the EU.
On Monday, 19 October, Ms Moret will be received by the president of Lithuania, the foreign minister, and the parliamentary speaker. Elections to the Lithuanian parliament are currently being held. A meeting with senior officials in charge of managing the Covid-19 pandemic is also on the programme.
In Latvia, on 20 and 21 October, she will hold talks with her Latvian counterpart, with the country’s president and with the health minister. Then on 22 and 23 October she will travel to Estonia where she will meet the country’s parliamentary speaker and senior government representatives. Meetings with various parliamentary committees, including the Committee on European Affairs, are also on the agenda. Their discussions will focus on Estonia’s experiences with e-governance, e-health (digitalisation of health data and services), the management of Covid-19 pandemic and cyber-security.
While in Latvia, Ms Moret will visit a project to clean up polluted sites in the port of Riga. This project was supported by Switzerland under its initial contribution to EU enlargement.
Ms Moret will be accompanied on her official visit to the Baltic States by a parliamentary delegation consisting of Andreas Aebi (SVP/BE), Irène Kälin (Greens/AG), Melanie Mettler (GLP/BE), Roger Nordmann (SP/VD), Benjamin Roduit (CVP/VS) and Beat Walti (FDP/ZH).