President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine in Kyiv. The Presidents chaired the ninth meeting of the Council of Presidents of Lithuania and Ukraine which saw the discussions on Ukraine’s eurointegration, security situation and strengthening of bilateral relations.

On 5–7 December 2016, a delegation of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, headed by Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, visited Washington, D.C. During the visit, Members of the Seimas, joined by members of the Estonian and Latvian parliamentary delegations, met with the leadership of the US Senate and Chairmen and Members of the Foreign Affairs Committees of both chambers of Congress, as well as the Senate Armed Services Committee. The widely representative joint high level meeting between US Senators and MPs from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is a historic meeting targeted at further strengthening and deepening the transatlantic link and further developing interparliamentary cooperation.

Acting Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius met his colleagues, Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kučinskis and Estonian Head of Government Juri Ratas at the meeting of the prime ministers of the Baltic Council of Ministers in Riga on Friday to discuss the issues of regional security, transport and energy infrastructure, the Eastern Partnership, the EU agenda and other issues of regional relevance.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with ambassadors of EU member states accredited to Lithuania. This is a traditional ambassadorial meeting with the President to discuss the key developments of the year, political topicalities in Lithuania, the EU agenda, and foreign policy issues.

Viktoras Pranckietis and the delegation headed by him met with the leaders of Latvia in Riga, where they discussed the preparation of Lithuania and Latvia for the Centenary celebration of the states to be held in 2018, security of the region, the Eastern Partnership, and nuclear safety issues.

The appointed Prime Minister, Saulius Skvernelis, introduced the new ministers to the Seimas. He also submitted to the Parliament the Programme drawn up by the 17th Government, led by the coalition of the Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.

On December 1-2 a Lithuanian delegation led by Head of the International Relations and Operations Department of the Ministry of National Defence Karolis Aleksa conducted a visit in Armenia and took part in the annually held bilateral Lithuanian-Armenian political-military consultations.

With committees meeting and the final plenary session of the year to prepare for, MEPs have a busy week in store for them in Brussels. MEPs vote on proposals to help member states better fight terrorism and to make the EU more democratic and transparent. The political groups also prepare for next week’s sitting in Strasbourg where the 2016 Sakharov Prize will be awarded to Yazidi survivors and advocates Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar.

At the sitting of the Seimas, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, presented the 2016 State of the Union address, made by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and the Commission Work Programme 2017.

For next year’s budget, MEPs have ensured better support for unemployed youngsters and additional funds to boost key initiatives supporting SMEs, transport infrastructure projects, research and Erasmus+ student mobility. Commitment appropriations for 2017 total €157.8578 billion, and payment appropriations €134.49 billion.