The bicycles collected during the #DviratisUkrainai campaign initiated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, as planned, this May left for Ukraine – today, with the help of the logistics company “Vlantana”, they were loaded onto lorries and began a journey through Europe. At the beginning of this year, Lithuanian residents, business representatives and institutions donated as many as 491 bicycles to the people of Ukraine.

Last Thursday, MEPs backed draft legislation to improve product labelling and durability and to put a stop to misleading claims.

To ensure a human-centric and ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe, MEPs endorsed new transparency and risk-management rules for AI systems.

With the beginning of the warm season, Vilnius city dwellers have noticed a significant increase in road infrastructure renewal works. This year’s planned works are at a record level, with more than 100 kilometres of roads to be resurfaced with new asphalt. By comparison, last year around 30 kilometres of roads were newly asphalted, so the volume of this year’s work has tripled.

Last Friday, Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis inspected the Rail Baltica project implementation work in Jonava District. In evaluating the inspected section from Kaunas to the Latvian border, the minister discussed ways to speed up the construction of the European gauge railway in Lithuania as soon as possible.

Ahead of a Commission proposal, expected later this year, on further EU sources of income, MEPs assess the revenue side of the EU budget and advocate several new “own resources”.

“Establishment of a national division is one of the most substantial steps in respect of in scope and complexity taken in the history of contemporary independent Lithuania towards a new Armed Forces quality. It is a breaking point in the Armed Forces modernization brought about by the security situation in the region as a matter of necessity. Formation of division will not only enable us to ensure a more efficient control and training of our Armed Forces but also a better interoperability with NATO. Allies welcome and support this step,” states Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas.

Companies maintaining the environment in the capital have already started mowing city areas. Having taken opinions of residents of the city into consideration, this year, the entire city will be mowed. Laws will be cut short in parks and squares where many people go for a walk and courtyards of multi-apartment buildings. Natural lawns will only be left on the slopes of high-traffic streets such as the Western Bypass or the Geležinio Vilko Street, also on the slopes of the Neris river embankments or near multi-apartment buildings where residents so choose.

The national pride of Lithuania’s gastro scene, cold beetroot soup, is getting its own celebration. Pink Soup Fest will sweep over Vilnius on June 10th, inviting festivalgoers to try the most delicious variations of the dish and participate in themed entertainments.

Many people think that women are more likely to indulge in wasteful consumption, but scientists do not have a clear-cut opinion on this. On the contrary, during the pandemic, researchers from the Consumer Materialism Cluster at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) conducted a study and found that women in Lithuania are more responsible than men when it comes to sustainability.