The Seimas adopted amendments to the Civil Code and accompanying legal acts aimed at ensuring safety of children in families and speeding up child custody and adoption processes.

On the agenda for this week: red lines for Brexit, recommendations for safer and cleaner cars, visa-free travel for Ukrainians and roaming.

“NATO remains and important guarantee of Lithuania’s security,” Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis says and underscores that Lithuania’s NATO membership is good for NATO too.

On 27 March 2017, Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, and Andriejus Stančikas, Chair of the Committee on Rural Affairs, met with New Zealand’s delegation consisting of Nathan Guy, Minister of Agriculture, and Rod Harris, Ambassador in Berlin.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili who arrived on an official visit to Lithuania to mark the start of visa free travels to the European Union and to thank the Lithuanian people for their support to Georgia.

On 28 March in Washington, D.C., the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Sven Mikser and Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, met with the United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė congratulated the people of Georgia with the introduction of visa free travel to the European Union.

A debate on security issues with the German and French interior ministers and visits by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and London Mayor Sadiq Khan are on the agenda of this week. In addition the UK is expected to formally start the process to withdraw from the EU by triggering article 50, while committees vote on measures to stop tax evasion by multinationals as well as on a mid-term revision of the EU's long-term budget.

The European Commission, on behalf of the European Union, has today renewed its strong support for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine, under its recently extended mandate, for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

‘Lithuania believes in Georgia’s European future. We have acquired best practice during the EU accession process and we are ready to share it with Georgia,’ said Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, at his meeting with Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the Georgian Parliament, and at a follow-up press conference. Mr Pranckietis is currently on his working visit to Georgia in the framework of a meeting of Speakers of NB8 Parliaments.