The Trade Committee adopted its position on the draft international procurement instrument aimed at restoring the balance of opportunities for EU companies tendering outside the EU.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, together with the Lithuanian Road Administration, is planning a long-term perspective for the country’s national roads – the most important goals and development directions are set forth in the draft Lithuanian National Road Development and Maintenance Strategy up to 2035. The strategy provides for the modernisation of the country’s vital highways, substantial improvement of the condition of roads and more than 70 bridges, continuation of pavement of gravel roads in the country’s regions (about 1,900 km), development of bicycle path infrastructure and urgent repairs of over 1,700 pedestrian crossings.

In order to develop sustainable energy resources, thus reducing environmental pollution and increasing Lithuania’s energy independence, Lithuania is actively preparing for the development of offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea. The Klaipėda State Seaport Development Council, which met today in Klaipėda and was chaired by Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis, discussed how to speed up the implementation processes of this project.

Civil aviation challenges and exploitation of civil aviation for illegal migration, the progress of the investigation regarding a forced landing of a Ryanair aircraft in Belarus in May, and practical implementation of the Mobility Package are among the transport matters that are relevant for Lithuania to be discussed this week during the visit of Julius Skačkauskas, Vice Minister of Transport and Communications, in Brussels.

The Bank of Lithuania published the balance of payments for September 2021, which shows that:

Financial flows of Lithuanian Airports during the third quarter of this year show signs of recovery. Compared to the same period for the year 2020, the income of the Lithuanian Airports increased by about 60 percent and reached 10.3 million EUR (during the same period for the year 2020, the income of Lithuanian Airports reached 6.4 million EUR and 13 million EUR in the year 2019).

MEPs have fought for and obtained better support for health, research, climate action, SMEs and the young in next year’s EU budget, after talks with Council on Monday.

In order to increase the capacity of Klaipėda Seaport and the security of maritime transport, the Ministry of Transport and Communications intends to allocate an additional 10 million euros from the investments of the European Union (EU) fund for dredging the Port’s external and internal navigation channel. Once the project is implemented, the depth of the external channel of Klaipėda Seaport will be 16 m (currently 15.5 m), while the depth of the internal navigation channel will be 15.5 m.

A new draft EU law will ensure a minimum level of wage protection in all member states, in order to guarantee decent living standards for workers and their families.

In October of this year, Lithuanian airports served 368 thousand passengers. This is almost five times more than compared to the same time last year, when Lithuanian Airports served only 77 thousand passengers. In comparison with the record-breaking month of October in the year 2019 - when Lithuanian Airports managed to serve 622 thousand passengers - this year, Lithuanian Airports managed to recover 60 percent of the passenger traffic. Experts believe that such increase in the number of served flights allows for the presumption to be made that the aviation sector is in a very favourable position and will continue to grow.