On November 9 UK Secretary of Defence Michael Fallon asserted at the Northern Group Defence Ministers meeting in Copenhagen (Denmark) that the United Kingdom would remain just as or perhaps an even more active partner in shaping European security policy.

On 11 November in Brussels, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Raimundas Karoblis attended the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council on trade. The Council mainly aims to discuss the modernisation of the EU’s trade defence instruments.

Nordea and DNB, Nordic banks operating in the Baltic states, could be sold after merger to one of Poland's biggest commercial banks PKO that purchased the Nordea business in Poland three years ago, 15min.lt news portal said on Friday.

The Seimas adopted amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure (drafts No XIIP-4786(2) and No XIIP-4787(2) respectively). The amendments were drafted with a view to aligning Lithuanian criminal law with the requirements of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

On 9 November, the European Commission adopted its ‘Enlargement package’ – a set of documents explaining its policy on EU enlargement, which contains the 2016 Reports, in which the Commission services present their detailed assessment of the state of play in each candidate country and potential candidate: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius stressed that even when the EU was facing hard times and challenges, the enlargement process remained the key driving force for the transformation and modernization of the candidate countries, an anchor of stability and security in South Eastern Europe.

Rimantas Šadžius, Member of the European Court of Auditors, presented to the Seimas Committee on European Affairs the annual report of the Court of Auditors on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2015.

The free trade agreement between the EU and Canada and the future of the EU's trade policy will be debated by MEPs this week as committees are meeting. On the agenda are issues such as a data protection agreement between the EU and the US, aviation safety rules to meet new challenges such as drones and the ongoing investigation into the Panama papers.

The Seimas, in conformity with the Constitution and having regard to the Decree of Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, ratified the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of Montenegro signed in Brussels on 19 May 2016. A total of 98 Members of the Seimas voted in favour of the draft law (No XIIP-4665(2)), with no votes against and 2 abstentions.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė presented letters of credence to Algimantas Rimkūnas, Lithuanian Ambassador to Sweden.

November 4 is the first day of work for NATO Secretary General’s high-level Senior Experts Group in Brussels. Invited to send a representative, the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania delegated Deputy Director of the Defence Policy and Planning Department Sigitas Dzekunskas.