The EU might spend money on defence for the first time ever. MEPs are ready to start talks with member states on plans to support the joint development and acquisition of military equipment.

On 12 March, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence of the National Parliament of Ireland (Oireachtas) Brendan Smith, and discussed the key bilateral issues, as well as items on the agenda of the European Union and Eastern Neighbourhood initiative.

On 14 March MEPs vote on Parliament’s official negotiating position for the EU’s next long-term budget starting in 2021.

At its meeting on 7 March 2018, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with the participation of Darius Skusevičius, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, unanimously regretted that Serbia was increasingly failing to align its foreign and security policy with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The three Baltic prime ministers said in Vilnius on Friday that they are against EU sanctions on Poland over its judicial reform.

The prime ministers of Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia are meeting in Vilnius on Friday to discuss joint projects, security matters, the rule of law in Poland and additional support to Ukraine.

During the March plenary in Strasbourg, MEPs vote on priorities for the EU’s long-term budget as well as on red lines for future EU-UK relations. Watch the video to find out more.

On 6 March in Washington, D.C., the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, together with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts, visited the United States Congress, where they held meetings with representatives of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The Baltic Foreign Ministers met with the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives Ed Royce and the Committee’s Ranking Member Eliot Engel, the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Bob Corker and the Committee’s Ranking Member Robert Menendez, and the Senator James Risch.

Lithuania's Justice Vice-Minister Raimondas Baksys has tendered resignation on Monday.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with members of the Nordic parliaments to discuss regional security issues.