Vice-President of the European Commission @NeelieKroesEU says it's important to understand 5G mobile will be more than just the next step beyond today's 4G networks. "It will also offer totally new possibilities to connect people, and also things – being cars, houses, energy infrastructures. All of them at once, wherever you and they are."

Variations in the operational time of world and Lithuanian bridges, happen to be significantly shorter than those, provided for, in their design or building conditions. The operational life-time of roads and bridges can be prolonged, applying modern technological solutions, but specialists have to be able to adjust them properly. In order to integrate scientific and practical knowledge in road and bridge building, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) and Riga Technical University (RTU) established the first in the Baltic States joint Master's degree program - innovative road and bridge engineering.

On 2-6 July, the Lithuanian Song Festival, the country's most important cultural event, included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, will take place in Vilnius.

On 25 June, 2014 a bilateral cooperation plan (BCP) for 2014-2016 has been signed between Benoit Battistelli, President of European Patent Office (EPO), and Rimvydas Naujokas, Director of the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) during the 140th meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organization in Hague.

More than a third of teachers in the European Union work in schools with a shortage of qualified staff and nearly half of school leaders report a shortage of teachers for special needs' pupils. While nearly 90% of teachers in the EU say they are satisfied with their jobs, 81% feel teaching is not valued in society. Although teachers feel well equipped for the job, early career support is not universally available. These are among the main findings of the new Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The survey, based on teachers' perceptions of their career conditions, includes feedback from 55 000 lower secondary teachers and school leaders in the EU. The European Commission has analysed the TALIS findings and its implications for EU education and training policy in a report which is also issued today.

The 22nd Druskininkai summer with M.K. Čiurlionis international art festival hosted by the Lithuanian Musician Support Fund and Druskininkai municipality will begin on 29 June.

The Ministry of Culture has announced which projects will receive co-financing from the state's budget. Lithuanian Ministry of Culture will allocate LTL 400 thousand (EUR 116 thousand) to 9 projects which are meant to restore and expand libraries.

Red, blue, pink, turquoise... These are not the different shades of the rainbow, but the colours marking the activities of the Parliament. The weeks in the Parliamentary calendar are coded with different colours each indicating that period's particular activities. Here is a short guide to the colours that will be directing the work of the new Parliament for the next five years.

A burnt piece of wood, an old lamp, a hockey puck – what do they have in common? Each is a personal reminder of a once special relationship now gone. The Parlamentarium – the European Parliament's visitors centre in Brussels – is hosting an exhibition of Zagreb's Museum of Broken Relationships. Preview some of the stories in our slideshow and come visit. The exhibition is open for the public until mid-October.

Only eight European countries - Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Malta, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and Norway - guarantee a legal right to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) soon after a child's birth, normally after the end of paid maternity or parental leave. In all other countries, the gap between the end of maternity / parental leave and legal entitlement to ECEC is more than two years (see figure 1). This is one of the main findings of a new report published by the European Commission.