Approx. 120 members of the Lithuanian Armed Forces assigned to a joint military unit with counterparts from the United Kingdom, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden have been certified for the European Union Battlegroup (EUBG) commitment in the second half of 2013 upon completion of the certification exercise on 16 May. If necessary, the EUBG led by the UK will be ready to deploy to complete tasks ranging from conflict prevention to humanitarian and disaster relief within 5 to 10 days.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė was awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, at Georgetown University. The honorary doctorate was conferred to the President for "political leadership, truth, transparency and responsibility."

On 16th May in the District Court of the Vilnius City the decision regarding the recently famous case concerning the removal of Polish street names from private houses in Vilnius District was made. The court dismissed the application of a bailiff to punish the Director of Administration of the Vilnius District Liucina Kotlovska. According to the application, Mrs Kotlovska was requested to pay a fine of one thousand litas for every day of delay in implementing a court order. There is a seven-day deadline for appeal to a higher court.

The representatives of the traditional religious communities in Lithuania issued a joint statement in which they express their opposition to abortion.

The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize might have been awarded to the EU, but EP president Martin Schulz made very clear who the honour really belonged to: "This Nobel Peace Prize is for all EU citizens." He duly accepted the prize during the official ceremony in Oslo on behalf of everyone in the EU. You now have to chance to see your prize up close in Parlamentarium, the Parliament's visitors centre in Brussels, where the medal will be displayed until 6 October.

I think that the Administration director of the Vilnius district local government should definitely agree to go to prison. Simply because she is not taking off the boards with Polish street names from private homes.

In this age of smartphones and social media protecting people's privacy has become more important than ever. The European Parliament is currently working on a major overhaul of EU data protection legislation that should ensure Europeans' data are safe online and offline.

Thousand litas for each day of delay in complying with a court order to remove Polish street names' signs from the houses of inhabitants must pay the Administrative director of the Vilnius district, Liucina Kotlovska.

There is an old saying, that there is nothing happening by coincidence for a second time. If something happens two or three times, than it is not a coincidence, but a deliberate action. I would like to add more – there are coincidences in politics and diplomacy.

On 10th May in the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius the founding meeting of the Association of the Polish Media Lithuania took place.