Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius on 18 December in Brussels handing over the Presidency of the Council of the EU to Greek Deputy Minister for European Affairs Dimitris Kourkoulas stressed that approval of the Multiannual Financial Framework, 2014 annual budget and stronger Eastern Partnership are among the key achievements of the Lithuanian Presidency.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė will attend a European Council summit in Brussels.

A meeting of the Lithuanian ruling coalition council was held on December 16th at midday. Meetings are being lead rotationally by leaders of the ruling coalition parties. The meeting of December 16th was chaired by the leader of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL) Valdemar Tomaševski. The chairwoman of the parliamentary EAPL faction Rita Tamašunienė and the vice-chairwoman Vanda Kravčonok took part at the meeting as well.

On behalf of the Lithuanian people and on her own behalf, President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended congratulations to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan on Independence Day.

The Georgian delegation led by the First Deputy State Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration David Dondua is visiting Vilnius on 16-17 December. The delegation is made up of representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence of Georgia.

On behalf of the Lithuanian people and on her own behalf, President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended congratulations to the President-elect of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, on her victory in the presidential election.

The meeting of the General Affairs Council on December 17 in Brussels is expected to adopt conclusions on EU enlargement and approve a mandate to start negotiations with Serbia.

On 16 December in Brussels the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius will attend the Foreign Affairs Council meeting. This will be the first Council meeting after the 3rd Eastern Partnership Summit, which took place in Vilnius on November 28-29. The ministers will discuss the follow-up of the Summit and the situation in Ukraine.

The December plenary was marked by film, fish and Ukraine. MEPs awarded the 2013 LUX Film Prize to "The Broken Circle Breakdown", approved a reform of the EU's fisheries policy to combat overfishing and called for support for Ukrainian protesters. The Parliament also backed extending the European fund to help redundant workers for another seven years.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, the EU Council Presidency, Linas Linkevičius is visiting Kiev on behalf of the European Union, continuing the pursuit of dialogue between the government of Ukraine, opposition and society.