The three Baltic prime ministers (from left Est. PM Andrus Ansips, Lat. PM Valdis Dombrovskis and Lith. PM Andrius Kubilius) descend from Gediminas Tower with their wives while a crowd of befuddled journalists and photographers attempt to take photos and ask questions. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

The prime ministers of the three Baltic states met in Vilnius’ Gediminas Tower yesterday to sign a joint declaration commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Baltic Way protests. I received an email inviting me to attend last week.

After the documents were signed, a brief press conference was held. But ironically, many members of the press who came to the event were not allowed in for the press conference, despite arriving early and carrying press passes. The museum curator who was haphazardly put in charge of the door was not letting anyone into the press conference, including the press. The crowd of journalists and photographers had to wait until the ministers left the tower. But there was no time for questions as the VIPs were quickly shuttled down the hill. My colleague and I stood there perplexed and angry at how ineptly the whole affair was handled.

The poor organization of the press conference espousing Baltic unity reflects the true nature of cooperation between the three countries. Yes, all three are joined by the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and before the signing ceremony the prime ministers and their families amicably spent a couple days together in Nida. But on many important issues facing the Baltic states, the three countries are not working together and sometimes undermining each others’ attempts to solve the problem.

Take the state of the economy. One of the root causes of the crisis all three countries are facing is the tightening of credit. The Scandinavian-owned banks that dominate the three countries are pulling back to avoid losses. One potential remedy that’s been discussed is the creation of a pan-Baltic development bank, which I wrote about here. At June’s World Lithuanian Economic Forum Lithuania’s economy minister Dainius Kreivys told me that the government was open to such a proposal. But it certainly wasn’t mentioned by any of the prime ministers yesterday. It looks like the country’s various politicians will continue complaining about the banks without taking action.

The source of 70 percent of Lithuania’s power, the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, is set to go offline at the end of the year. This was a requirement of the country’s admission into the EU, stipulated because the plant’s structure is similar to Chernobyl’s. They’ve known they had to take care of this for years. The three countries were going to band together build a new plant, but now it seems it won’t be online until around 2020 by most estimates.

LEO LT, the Lithuanian company with the majority stake, was declared to be unconstitutionally founded in March and has now ceased functioning. The state-owned company may now be barred from handling the nuclear plant project. Meanwhile all three countries will become more dependent on importing electricity, which means higher utility bills on top of the crisis woes. The recent experiences of Ukraine, Bulgaria and Georgia shows that the Baltic states should be wary of increasing their reliance on Russia for energy. But here we are.

2009 was supposed to be the year Vilnius showcased itself to the world. But the amount of tourists is way down because of the crisis and the shutdown of Lithuania’s national airline flyLAL. You might have read about the ruthless competition between Latvia’s state-owned airBaltic and flyLAL. It hardly showed the spirit of the Baltic Way and the result is less exposure to the Baltic states and less tourist lats, litas and kroons. The airlines are now fighting in court over anti-competitive practices.

I mention these three issues not to denigrate the Baltic Way commemoration, but to point out that mere pomp and circumstance do not solve problems. To announce that the three countries were going to work together on one of the difficult issues they face, just as they did when they held hands and stared down the Soviet behemoth, would truly commemorate the anniversary of the Baltic Way.

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Views expressed in the opinion section are never those of the Baltic Reports company or the website’s editorial team as a whole, but merely those of the individual writer.