The Government approved the infrastructure development plan for the Vilnius-Klaipėda railway and Klaipėda railway junction – the section from Klaipėda to Draugystės station. According to the proposal of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the electrified railway infrastructure network will meet the technical and transport needs of the European Union and reduce the negative impact of transport on the environment.

This year, the master development plans for the country’s three airports will be prepared at the Lithuanian airports. A procurement procedure for architectural solutions for the future development of Vilnius Airport is expected to be announced later. The preparation of the plan and the coordination of a clear decision on the fate of the cultural heritage to be preserved at Vilnius Airport’s arrival terminal would allow to formulate the task for architects more clearly and speed up the development works on the terminals.

Lithuania, together with Latvia, Estonia and the joint venture between the Baltic States RB Rail AS, submitted applications for additional European Union (EU) funding for the European gauge railway development project Rail Baltica. The total EU funding needs of the three Baltic States in the application amount to almost EUR 1.5 billion, of which Lithuania has a direct share of EUR 686.7 million.

The Bank of Lithuania, together with the central banks of Romania and the Netherlands, will take part in the EU Twinning project aimed at strengthening the supervision, governance and risk management of the financial sector of Moldova, bringing the country closer to the EU standards and helping to implement provisions of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement related to the financial sector.

Mr Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup (EG) and Minister of Finance of Ireland, who visited Vilnius last week, first met with Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania Gintarė Skaistė. During the bilateral meeting, the ministers discussed the economic outlook for the euro area (EA), the review of the EU fiscal rules and further fiscal stance. The process of completing the Banking Union and other pending issues of the Eurogroup Agenda this year were also discussed during the meeting.

Jump Air, a new locally registered air carrier, is to start its operations in Lithuania soon. This Italian share capital company plans to cover airspaces of Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and the Caribbean.

Vilnius should appear on the map of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) as part of the Rail Baltica project, while Klaipėda should be connected with Kaunas by a high-speed train line. The above ideas were expressed by Minister Marius Skuodis during his Tuesday meeting in Vilnius with Jean’Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate for Transport of France, which is starting its Presidency of the Council of Europe.

The Seimas adopted a package of amendments to the Law on Markets in Financial Instruments prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which transposes the European Union directives and regulations thus providing more opportunities for crowdfunding companies and creating conditions for better risk management for financial brokerage firms.

In preparation for the 2022 consultations with the Republic of Lithuania under Article IV of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an IMF mission, led by Borja Gracia, will work remotely on 11-24 January.