On May 16-27 international Operation Open Spirit 2016, largest disposal of unexploded ammunition efforts in the Baltic Sea this year, will take place in Lithuania’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. The operation in organised by the Lithuanian Navy.

New powers for Europol to fight terrorism and international crime were approved by MEPs during May's plenary session in Strasbourg. They also called for any reform of EU asylum rules to be based on solidarity among member states and warned that Turkey still has to fulfil a number of conditions before its citizens can be granted visa-free travel to the EU. Read on for an overview of the plenary session's most important issues.

A Civil Liberties Committee delegation will travel to Greece from 18 to 20 May to check the situation of refugees at the external borders of the EU and assess how the EU-Turkey deal to manage migrant and asylum-seekers flows into the EU is being implemented. MEPs will visit the Greece/FYROM border, the island of Lesvos and Athens. They will also meet representatives of the Greek Government, and EU and international bodies, as well as NGOs.

As concrete follow up to the 18 April Foreign Affairs Council, EU Ambassadors in the Political Security Committee agreed yesterday to extend the mandate of Operation Sophia by one year with continued emphasis on its core mandate of disrupting the business model of human smugglers and traffickers.

Until China has fulfilled the EU's five criteria for market economy status, its exports to the EU must be treated in a "non-standard" way, say MEPs in a non-legislative resolution passed on Thursday. This non-standard methodology, for use in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, should assess whether China's costs and prices are market-based, so as to ensure a level playing field for EU industry and defend EU jobs, they add.

Visa liberalisation for Turkey, migration and the impact of the refugee crisis on internal borders in the Schengen area will be the focus of three plenary debates with Commission First Vice-President Timmermans and Commissioner Avramopoulos and the Dutch Presidency, starting at 15.00.

EU vessels will be allowed to fish for shrimp, demersal fish, tuna and small pelagic fish in Mauritania’s Exclusive Economic Zone under a new four-year fisheries deal approved by Parliament on Tuesday. In return, the EU will pay Mauritania €59.125 million per year- €55 million for the total allowable catches and €4.125 million to support the development of Mauritania’s sector-specific fisheries policy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania has allocated EUR 10,000 in humanitarian aid to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women for victims impacted by a tropical cyclone in Fiji and EUR 10,000 in humanitarian aid to the Government of Ecuador to help earthquake survivors in Ecuador.

The European Parliament Conference of Presidents (EP President and political group leaders) today debated the package of proposals adopted by Commission on refugee and migration policies. This package appears to be a balanced and comprehensive one.

In Pristina for talks with leading political figures and civil society, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini stressed the need for all Kosovo to unite behind the European agenda. "Kosovo is Europe", she said, and it is important to continue on the long road to European integration.