Diplomat Raimundas Karoblis was appointed as Lithuania's new Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to this appointment Karoblis served as the Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the European Union.

Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis says that 325 migrants that Lithuania will have to accept is an optimal number that was negotiated. According to the minister, refugees will have "fairly good" living conditions in the Refugee Reception Centre in Rukla.

The European Commission has this month approved 23 multiannual national programmes under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The total funding for the agreed programmes is approximately €2.4 billion, for the period 2014-2020. Money will now be able to flow to frontline Member States such as Greece and Italy, and to other EU Member States also dealing with high migratory flows. The Commission has worked intensively with Member States to ensure that EU funds are released urgently. 22 national programmes were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programmes will be approved later this year.

The European Commission has adopted new rules that make it mandatory for certain over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate derivative contracts to be cleared through central counterparties. The rules in the form of delegated regulation would strengthen financial stability in the member states and boost market confidence.

On the first day of the Seimas autumn session, 10 September, Lithuania's Parliament will receive the Banner of Peace.

The European Commission has proposed to provide Italy with €1.4 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to help 184 former workers of Alitalia to find new jobs. Most of the redundancies occurred in the region of Lazio.

On 4 August, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius welcomed the new British Ambassador to Lithuania Claire Lawrence and stressed that Lithuania highly appreciated its good bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom and was interested in further expanding cooperation.

NATO will continue conducting the Baltic Air Policing Mission in its enhanced format comprising eight aircraft. Before the security crisis the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission normally had four aircraft for each rotation.

More Europeans say they have a positive image of the European Union and trust in the EU has gone up since last November. In addition, citizens see immigration as the major challenge facing the EU currently. These are some of the results of the latest Standard Eurobarometer survey published today. The survey was carried out between 16 and 27 May 2015 in 34 countries or territories.

In a meeting with Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavičius on 3 August in Vilnius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius said that it was most important for Ukraine to continue and complete the ongoing reforms to help stabilize the country's economic situation and bring Kyiv closer to European integration process.