On Thursday Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has met with Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Lithuania Wei Ruixing. The meeting focused on bilateral relations, future opportunities for development of trade in agricultural sector, cooperation in China+16 format, and future prospects.

MEPs called for more measures to prevent the loss of migrant lives in the Mediterranean, including more funding for search and rescue missions, during the plenary session on 27-30 April. They also voted in favour of phasing out plastic bags in the EU and installing emergency call devices in new car models, while calling for an alcohol strategy to tackle the negative effects of alcohol consumption. Read on for our summary of the plenary session in Strasbourg.

On 27 April in New York, Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the UN, Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė met with Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, who is participating in the Fourteenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The Crimean Tatar leader presented the situation of the Crimean Tatars and thanked Lithuania for its continued support to their efforts to protect their rights.

Following consideration of the 2014 Annual Activity Report of the State Security Department (VSD), the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence marked that the scale of VSD tasks had significantly changed due to a major change in the geopolitical situation.

On 25 April, MEP Gabrielius Landsbergis was elected as the new chairman of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) in Lithuania.

Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Pope Francis in Vatican. During the meeting, the Speaker of the Seimas, on behalf of the people of Lithuania and in particular on behalf of the disabled, invited the Pope to pay an official visit to Lithuania. The Pope thanked her for the invitation.

As the implementation of the project "Support to the Civil Service Modernisation in the Republic of Moldova in line with the EU best practices" of the EU Twinning Programme gathers momentum, an opening conference was held in Kishinev on 16 April.

On 22 April, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, who came to Lithuania for a working visit. The meeting focused on bilateral relations between Lithuania and Estonia, the security situation in Europe, the situation in Ukraine, relations with Russia, as well as cooperation in the implementation of strategic energy and transport projects.

The best way to solve the protracted issue of dual citizenship in Lithuania is to vote on it in a referendum, says Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė held a meeting with President Nicolae Timofti of Moldova. In the run-up to the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, the Presidents of Lithuania and Moldova discussed Moldova's progress in implementing important European reforms and the strengthening of bilateral economic and political relations.