During his first working visit to Riga, President Gitanas Nausėda met with Latvian President Egils Levits. The President of Lithuania called for resuming trilateral presidential summits to discuss urgent political, economic, regional defense and security issues. The meeting also focused on energy independence and strategic transport infrastructure projects.

President Gitanas Nausėda met with the Vice President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, to discuss energy independence projects. The President thanked Maroš Šefčovič for his personal contribution and support to enhancing Lithuanian and regional energy security as well as their integration into the European Union’s energy market.

Acting Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis met with Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič to discuss issues of regional energy security, climate change, etc.

Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis proposed the incumbent Land Force Commander Maj Gen Valdemaras Rupšys as next Chief of Defence of Lithuania to the President. He would succeed the present Chief of Defence, Lt Gen Jonas Vytautas Žukas, whose tenure ends in late July.

Parliament will have 44 interparliamentary delegations this legislative term, maintaining relations with parliamentarians in other countries, regions and organisations.

MEPs discussed the priorities of the incoming Finnish presidency with Prime Minister Antti Rinne and Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen.

During the first official visit on July 16, President Gitanas Nausėda met with Marshal of the Sejm Marek Kuchcinski, Marshal of the Senate Stanislaw Karczewski, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The President and the Polish Prime Minister discussed the EU agenda and development goals for economic, energy and transport infrastructure.

President Gitanas Nausėda sworn in on July 12 left for neighboring Poland for his first official visit. Regional security and defense priorities, as well as energy independence issues, were discussed at the meeting with President Andrzej Duda.

MEPs vote on the candidate for the president of the European Commission on Tuesday 16 July.

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who was nominated for the post by the European Council, will outline her programme and discuss it with MEPs from 9.00 CET. MEPs will vote on her candidacy at 18.00 CET.

In order to become Commission President, von der Leyen must secure the support of an absolute majority of MEPs (as of today she must get at least 374 votes). The vote will be a secret paper ballot.

Although she has the backing of EU leaders and is a member of the political party that won most seats in the European elections, von der Leyen was not a lead candidate, a fact criticised by many MEPs.

Political groups have already subjected von der Leyen to tough questioning about her plans for the Commission.

If she fails to win a majority, the European Council would have to put forward another candidate.

Following May’s elections, one of the first tasks of the new, directly-elected European Parliament is the election of the next European Commission President.

Once this new president has been approved, work starts on setting up the new Commission. Parliament’s committees will hold hearings with each of the commissioners-designate to assess their suitability for the portfolio to which they are assigned, before MEPs vote on the Commission as a whole.

Click below to watch the debate and the vote on the new Commission President live in Parliament on 16 July from 9.00 CET.

Ref.: 20190711STO56841
www.europarl.europa.eu

The Lithuanian-coordinated project of developing the European Union Cyber Rapid Response Teams (CRRTs) is well underway. Representatives of European Union member states participating in the projects met at the Ministry of National Defence on July 12 exchanged ideas and discussed the common cyber toolkit to be developed.