With the threat of terrorism growing every day, the task of Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, becomes increasingly more important. It's his job to coordinate the Council's work in combating terrorism, keep an eye on all the instruments available to the EU and make policy recommendations. We talked to him about how terrorism should be fought and the role the European Parliament could play.

The EU's new eastern partnership policy should boost cooperation with its eastern neighbourhood countries to reduce both parties' energy dependence on Russia, said MEPs and MPs from eastern partnership countries at the fourth Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, which closed in Yerevan, Armenia, on Wednesday. The Assembly's resolutions also call for more trade coordination, solidarity with Ukraine to counter Russian aggression there and an official recognition of the Armenian genocide 100 years ago.

At the General Affairs Council meeting on 17 March in Brussels, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, emphasised the importance of a unified and strong EU policy stance towards Russia. "Russia has openly admitted it has annexed Crimea. Russia fails to comply substantially with the Minsk agreements. For these reasons, the EU should keep up the pressure on Russia. We have to extend the existing sanctions and consider new sanctions if the situation keeps deteriorating," stressed the Lithuanian Foreign Minister.

Plans to disburse €1.8 billion in medium-term loans to help Ukraine out of its economic recession were backed by the International Trade Committee on Thursday. The loans will top up financial help from other donors under an economic programme put together by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"China-EU relations are 40 years old and deserve the highest level of support and ambition," tweeted EP President Martin Schulz after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing. Schulz is in China until Wednesday for a three-day official visit to discuss furthering cooperation between the EU and China, especially at the parliamentary level.

Negotiations between Lithuania and Oman on bilateral investment promotion and mutual protection agreement have entered the second stage. Representatives of the two countries are meeting in Vilnius on 16-18 March 2015.

Parliamentary responses to radical change in the EU's eastern neighbourhood, driven by Russian aggression in Ukraine but also by EU association deals with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, will be debated by MEPs and Eastern Partnership countries' MPs at the fourth ordinary session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, Armenia, this week.

During a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday, ministers agreed to strengthen surveillance at external borders and to reinforce the resources and the operational capacities of FRONTEX.

The Venezuelan authorities must immediately release all peaceful protesters, students and opposition leaders arbitrarily detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression and fundamental rights, Parliament said in a vote on Thursday. The government must also put an end to the political persecution and repression of the democratic opposition, it added.

Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Andrius Krivas on his visit to Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk on March 9-11 discussed Ukraine's security situation, the reform agenda and NATO-Ukraine cooperation.