Exactly one year ago on 7th April 2013 a social-international website L24.lt joined the online media group in Lithuania.

High Commissioner of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on National Minorities Knut Vollebeak many times declared and expressed his understanding of the legitimate aspirations of the Polish national minority in Lithuania and supported Poles in their struggle for minority rights. He visited Lithuania twice in 2011 and 2012. After analysing the situation of national minorities on the spot, the High Commissioner provided the government of Lithuania with recommendations in this regard.

In a Communication adopted today, the Commission lays out an EU agenda for making Europe's health systems fit for facing current challenges and pressures. It highlights a number of initiatives the EU can develop and build upon to help Member States ensure that citizens' aspirations to high quality care can be met. The focus will be on methods and tools that will allow Member States to achieve greater effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of their health systems, in line with reform recommendations addressed to them in the context of the European Semester.

Member States are also encouraged to make good use of European funding instruments, such as structural funds, in implementing the recommended reforms.

Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health, said: "In recent years, due to the economic crisis and at the request of the Member States, the Commission has put the issue of sustainability of healthcare systems under the microscope. I am confident that we have amassed a robust evidence-base of principles and tools that can support Member States in developing accessible, resilient and effective health systems that not only add more years to life, but add more life to our years."

The Communication recommends to Member States, which have primary responsibility for their health systems, that they:

• Strengthen effectiveness, keeping in mind that the first objective of a health system is to improve the health of the population. This can be done through applying performance assessment results, ensuring safety and quality of care for patients, and developing an integrated approach to care so as to avoid over reliance on hospitals.
• Increase accessibility, so that health systems provide healthcare services to the whole population. This result can be achieved through better planning of the health workforce and a more effective use of medicines. Furthermore, the Directive on cross-border care will provide increased transparency, and better affordability and availability of care.
• Improve resilience, so health systems are capable of adapting to changing environments and identifying innovative solutions. This capacity can be strengthened by choosing more effective and efficient treatments which respond to patients' needs. Of equal importance is building efficient information flows and innovative Information and Communication Technologies in health.

Why now? : Timeline of the Communication

Some milestones that have paved the way for the Communication are:

• 2006: Member States agree on common values and principles of the health systems of the European Union.
• 2011: Adoption of Directive 2011/24 on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare.
• 2011: The Council of Health Ministers establishes an EU-level reflection process to help Member States provide modern, responsive and sustainable health systems.
• 2013: In December, the Council of Health Ministers endorses the progress made and calls for further work in this area in its conclusions on the 'reflection process on modern, responsive and sustainable health systems'.
• 2014: The Annual Growth Survey emphasizes the need to improve the efficiency, financial sustainability and effectiveness of healthcare systems, to reach the objective of building competitiveness and growth. It also acknowledges the importance of the healthcare sector in tackling the social consequences of the economic crisis, stressing that healthcare services are an area that will generate significant job opportunities in years to come.

The evidence-base

The Commission's Communication is backed by several studies, in particular on access to healthcare, effectiveness of health systems, and reforms of the hospital sector. Some findings are:

• In general, assessing the effectiveness of health systems is a complex process: healthcare measures may only show their effects after a long period, and reliability of data is a challenge.
• Early diagnosis of colorectal, cervical and breast cancer through organised population-based screening programmes is a useful means for the healthcare system to improve results.
• Healthcare access is directly affected by the organisation and management models used in healthcare systems, with patients having more difficulty in accessing healthcare if health systems are complex and lack transparency.

www.europa.eu

Beyond the grey bulk of the Isle of Arran, 5,000 kilometres of Atlantic Ocean separate Britain from Northern America. Just a few hundred metres inland in Prestwick, Western Scotland, the Oceanic Area Control Centre (OACC) controls the airspace over the eastern half of the North Atlantic, from the Azores to a boundary with Iceland, getting airline passengers to and from Europe safely. It's at the forefront of a revolution making flights in Europe shorter, greener and cheaper.

The connections between Lithuania and Sweden will be especially convenient this summer: the airline Air Lituanica will offer seasonal flights to two Swedish cities – Gothenburg and Malmö. Flights will be operated from the middle of June until the end of August twice a week on both routes at evening time.

On April 2 Spartan C-27 J transport aircraft of the Lithuanian Air Force with a crew of ten will be formally deployed to the mission in the Central African Republic from the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Siauliai.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told Lithuanian Radio yesterday that the final decision on the fate of the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project will be made after the government has received answers to nearly 80 questions it has given to the project's strategic investor – Japan's Hitachi.

he number of the road fatalities is decreasing in Lithuania; however, it still exceeds the average of the European Union (EU).

In 2013, tourists and same-day visitors spent LTL 4.2 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) in Lithuania. According to the State Department of Tourism (VTD), which has summarised the statistics of the Bank of Lithuania for 2013, revenue from inbound tourism has grown by as much as 8% year-on-year.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė took part in the ceremony of signing the Agreement on the Strategic Guidelines of Lithuania's Security Policy for 2014-2020 which was held at the Presidential Palace. As Lithuania celebrates ten years of its membership in NATO, seven parliamentary parties signed an agreement, initiated by the President, on foreign, security and defense policies to ensure Lithuania's economic, energy, military and information security.