The end of the EP's seventh term will be followed by a presidential debate, election night, the formation of new political groups and the constitution of the new Parliament.

A reform of Europe's banking system, quicker aid for member states hit by natural disasters and stricter checks for workers posted abroad... It might have been the last plenary session before the European elections in May, but MEPs managed to approve many new laws that will benefit Europeans for years to come. Read on for an overview of the main legislative proposals that were adopted this week.

There are three weeks left until the presidential elections. Both public opinion polls and forecasts of political observers indicate that the president will not be elected during the first round of elections, therefore the second round will be necessary. The political scientist Jūratė Novagrockienė anticipates, that there may be surprises during the second round. The political scientist thinks, that namely the leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Valdemar Tomaševski, not ZigmantasBalčytis, is the most likely rival of the second time candidate Dalia Grybauskaitė.

On Thursday, by adopting the Law on the Euro Adoption, as well as secondary legislation, the Parliament of Lithuania (Seimas) has established the legal basis to introduce the new currency in Lithuania.

“Crimea’s annexation and now the destabilization of eastern Ukraine is not about the protection of Russian speaking minorities or alleged Ukraine’s radical extremism. It is about obstructing and preventing the May 25 elections”, - said Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė, Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, delivering a statement in the United Nations Security Council meeting on the human rights situation in Ukraine.

On Thursday evening, the debates of Lithuanian presidential candidates will begin. Five debate shows will be broadcasted by the national television LRT before the first round of elections, moderated by journalist Edmundas Jakilaitis.

On 15 April in Paris, the Political Director of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Dalius Čekuolis met with the Political Director of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jacques Audibert. The meeting focused on events in Ukraine, as well as relations with Russia in light of the Ukrainian crisis.

"Lithuania is deeply concerned with the sharp deterioration of the situation in Eastern Ukraine. External forces and provocateurs continue to fuel separatism and hatred, destabilizing the situation in the Eastern Ukraine," the Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite stressed at the Security Council meeting on Ukraine on 13 April.

The European Parliament Group Leaders and the President of the European Parliament, in the framework of the Conference of Presidents, met today European Council President Herman Van Rompuy to the discuss practical arrangements for electing the next President of the European Commission.

Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, had a bilateral meeting with Ewa Kopacz, Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, and thanked the Marshal for her participation in the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments.