Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon met with Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitiene and assured that Israel is interested in buying meat from Lithuania. The possibility to export beef to Israel emerged after Lithuania legalised ritual slaughter of animals and preparation of meat under kosher requirements.

By 2018, when Lithuania marks the 100 years anniversary of restoration of the state, there must be monuments put up for Jonas Basanavicius, one of the most important independence activists, and Antanas Smetona, the first president of Lithuania, believes Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

In the last quarter of 2014, the volume of construction work carried out in Lithuania amounted to EUR 785 million at current prices.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said that Vilnius Concerts and Sports Palace, a currently abandoned modernist structure in central Vilnius, will become a modern congress centre by 2017.

Statistics Lithuania reports that, according to the Labour Force Survey data, in 2014 the unemployment rate stood at 10.7%; against 2013, it decreased by 1.1 percentage points.

On 5 February 2015, Enterprise Lithuania hosted its annual startup event Startup Lithuania Overview 2014. During the event, the highlights of Lithuania Startup Ecocystem of 2014 were announced and awards were given to the teams that achieved the most in 2014.

On 15-16 February 2015, President Dalia Grybauskaite will be attending events marking the Day of Restoration of the State of Lithuania.

The number of holiday-makers choosing Lithuania as their destination is falling, yet, there are increasingly more and more business tourists in the country, which allows expecting a modest growth in the sector in the upcoming 6 months, a Tourism Confidence Index compiled by the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists shows.

On 12 January 2015, the French President signed a decree under which Deputy Seimas Speaker, Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, Social Democrat MP Gediminas Kirkilas has been appointed as an officier of the Legion of Honour.

When one parent unlawfully takes her or his child abroad, the other is left with a difficult judicial battle. To ensure the prompt return of abducted children, more than 90 states, including all EU countries, are signed up to the 1980 Hague Convention, which offers a common legal framework. MEPs debate today the possibility of another eight countries joining the Convention and they will vote on it tomorrow. Follow it live on our website.