At the invitation of President Dalia Grybauskaitė, President Andrzej Duda of Poland arrived on a visit to Lithuania. On February 16, the President of Poland and other heads of state as well as EU leaders attended the festive events of the Centennial of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania. On February 17, at 11 a.m., President Andrzej Duda will meet with President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, who will attend festive centennial events in Lithuania. At the meeting, the implementation of strategic Lithuanian energy and infrastructure projects, a joint EU response to the danger posed by the unsafe Astravyets nuclear power plant as well as Lithuania’s priorities for the new multiannual financial framework were discussed.

Backed by a robust economic growth, employment in the EU continued to rise more strongly than expected in the third quarter of 2017, while unemployment figures declined further according to the latest Quarterly Review on Employment and Social Developments in Europe.

On 13 February 2018, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, met Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport. The meeting focused on the projects to develop strategic transport connections of the EU, including the Rail Baltica project, which is of particular importance for the Baltic Sea region.“Lithuania has been successfully and timely implementing the phases of the project requiring particular diligence. I am encouraged to see the united approach of all Baltic States towards this strategic infrastructure project. We expect to connect the intermodal terminal in Palemonas to the 1435 mm Rail Baltica gauge in 2019. If this is the case, then as early as in 2019 we will be ready to demonstrate the potential offered by the Rail Baltica to business,” said the Speaker of the Seimas.

On 12 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius and the Irish Minister of State with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration and Integration David Stanton participated in a panel discussion “Forging Partnerships: Ireland and Lithuania in the EU27” that was organized by the University College Cork.

On 9 February, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Albinas Zananavičius met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Terens-Nikolaos Quick and discussed bilateral political relations between Lithuania and Greece, opportunities for promoting economic cooperation, issues related to the Western Balkans region, energy security, and migration.

At the end of January, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the new update of the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI), which contains information on regulatory changes that affect trade in services in 44 countries. According to the document, Lithuania is among the top regulatory performers. The top ten countries with the most open markets for services trade are Latvia, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Lithuania, Denmark, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

From easier online shopping, to cutting CO2 emissions faster and the new composition of the Parliament,: check out our overview of the plenary session in Strasbourg in February.

During his working visit on 5-8 February, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Neris Germanas, who was accompanied by the Ambassador Dalius Čekuolis, accredited two Honorary Consulates of Lithuania to Tunisia in Tunis and Sousse. The CEO of several companies Khaled Fourati will serve as Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in Tunis, while the Director of Swicorp in North Africa Majdi Chaabouni will head the Honorary Consulate of Lithuania in Sousse. During the ceremony, the Ambassador Čekuolis handed over exequaturs to the Honorary Consuls, permitting them to perform their official duties.

On 6 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania Ditmir Bushati, who is visiting Lithuania. The Foreign Ministers discussed possibilities for strengthening bilateral cooperation, Albania’s EU membership aspirations, the situation in the Western Balkans, important regional security and cooperation issues.