Parliament has invited people from all over Europe to discuss the future of the European Union in the plenary chamber as part of its celebrations for the anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. The landmark agreement was signed 60 years ago this week, paving the way for the EU. The legal affairs committee also votes this week on new rules to make it easier for visually impaired people to access books and other print materials, while members of the justice committee debate the rule of law in Poland.

On March 17 Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis and Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas discussed security situation in the region, and bilateral and multilateral cooperation with Director of Security and Defence Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland Arnór Sigurjónsson conducting his first formal visit in Vilnius.

“It is absolutely clear to me that the evolution of the EU need not be feared. After all, it was due to the EU’s evolution that we became members of the EU. A time of transformation always opens new opportunities. We must simply know for certain what objectives we want to pursue in this period of change. In the current geopolitical circumstances, Lithuania should join those EU Member States which will seek to work closely together in the area of security and defence,” said Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

Modern threats and ancient prejudices dominated Parliament’s March 2017 plenary session. The need to ensure that our food is safe was debated as were the threats and opportunities of melting polar ice. At the same time, the inequality still facing women in the workplace was underlined and an MEP who berated women punished, while most MEPs called on Europe to step in and replace the funds the United States is withdrawing from NGOs offering abortions in developing countries.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of U.S. European Command.

On March 14 Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis and Vice Minister Vytautas Umbrasas met with a delegation of the Defence Committee of the German Bundestag on a visit in Lithuania. A bilateral meeting of German and Lithuanian delegations addressed security situation, bilateral cooperation, and activities of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battalion Battlegroup deployed in Lithuania to which Germany is the framework nation.

On 10 March 2017, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, and Saulius Skvernelis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, presented the work programme of the second (spring) session to the Parliament.

The Board of the Seimas approved the parliamentary diplomacy action plan for 2017 and decided to establish a working group for overseeing the implementation of this plan.

On 9 March, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius received the new Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Lithuania Fahad M. Alruwaily, who came to present his letters of credence to President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Antonio Tajani made the case for European unity in his first speech as Parliament President at the start of a Council summit. “Today more than ever we can see how important European unity is,” he told political leaders at the summit in Brussels on 9 March. “Europe needs to be changed not weakened. All the institutions need to work harder to find the answers which ordinary Europeans are looking to us to provide.”