On 20 January in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius attended the meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council, which discussed preparations for the EU-Russia summit on 27 and 28 January. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, the EU is interested in the deepening of the dialogue and the development of the strategic partnership with Russia, but it has to be done on the basis of mutual respect and trust.

MEPs will this week exchange views on economic, budgetary and social issues with their national counterparts during the parliamentary week. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the EP and MEPs will vote in committee meetings on automatic emergency calls from cars, anti-dumping measures and the return of national treasures.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė, currently on a working visit to Riga, met with President Andris Bērziņš of Latvia. She is visiting Latvia at the invitation of this country's President and will attend the opening events of Riga as the European Capital of Culture 2014.

On 20 January in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius will attend the meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council. In the light of the EU-Russia summit on 27 and 28 January, the Council will debate the situation in Russia, its domestic and foreign policy trends as well as the cooperation between the EU and Russia.

Today, 17 January, President Dalia Grybauskaitė will be visiting Riga at the invitation of President Andris Bērziņš of Latvia. The two Presidents will hold a bilateral meeting. They will also participate in the events unveiling Riga as the European Capital of Culture 2014.

The Government in its sitting has approved a draft law on introduction of the euro in Lithuania, drafted by the Ministry of Finance, and will submit it to the Seimas. The draft law establishes a procedure for preparation of the introduction of the euro, exchange of litas to the euro, and withdrawal of the national currency from circulation, and regulates other practical aspects of the euro introduction.

In late April 2014, the Assembly of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland is planning to hold a meeting.

Today, the European Parliament in Strasbourg summarised the Lithuanian EU Council Presidency. The debate was attended by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, European Commission President Jose Barroso and Chairman of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Valdemar Tomaševski (MEP), who took part in the debate on behalf of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania is a regional party representing Poles living in the Vilnius region of Lithuania. The Electoral Action of Poles is part of the coalition government in Lithuania.

As it was already reported, today, on the Day of the Freedom Defenders of Lithuania, members of the faction of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania at the formal sitting of the Seimas, during the speech of Vytautas Landsbergis, have left the Seimas room of the 11th March. This was their way to express protest against the politicized decisions of courts and huge financial penalties imposed for the use of mother tongue. Through this protest members of the Seimas also recalled that 23 years ago, exactly in January 1991, just after the bloody events of that time, no one else but Vytautas Landsbergis had signed the Law on National Minorities, that was successfully operating for nearly two decades - until 2010; then it was cancelled by the conservative-liberal majority of the government.

Dalia Grybauskaitė is leaving for Strasbourg to attend a plenary session of the European Parliament. Tomorrow, January 14, the President will present the results of Lithuania's EU Presidency to Euro-parliamentarians of all the 28 member states who were directly elected by European citizens as their representatives.