The European Parliament does not recognise Russia's illegal occupation of the Crimea, and urges it to withdraw its troops from Ukraine's border in line with international law and principles, said President Schulz, opening the final plenary session of this legislature. He also called a minute's silence marking the 20th anniversary of Rwanda's genocide of 800,000 people.

We express strong support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania states.

The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission will meet in Brussels on 4-5 June 2014 in the G7 format.

Ukraine has been making the headlines for months. What started as mass demonstrations escalated into violent clashes and finally the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia. "The EU should have reacted much earlier," said Paweł Kowal, the head of Parliament's delegation to Ukraine. The Polish member of the ECR group discussed the situation in the troubled country during a chat with the Parliament's Facebook fans on 9 April.

An extra €150 million for urgent humanitarian aid and food assistance and €37 million for the Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights for this year was approved by Parliament's Budgets Committee on Thursday. This will enable the European Commission to pay the most urgent bills, but payment problems in the external action field will surely recur in the course of this year, MEPs said.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Speakers of the Parliaments of the EU Member States. Participating in the meeting were also representatives from the Parliaments of Eastern Partnership countries. The meeting focused on topical EU issues, the work ahead and challenges facing the European Union. The situation in Ukraine and further steps by the European Union to help this country stabilize the situation were also discussed. This visit of the heads of EU national parliaments is the last event within Lithuania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

With the European elections approaching rapdily, the committees and political groups prepare for the last plenary of this legislature. During the week political groups will set their positions for the upcoming plenary starting 14 April while committees vote on deals reached with the Council. These include proposals for returning cultural objects, rules on noise restrictions at airports and measures to promote farm products.

On 3 April in Vilnius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo Enver Hoxhaj to discuss bilateral relations, Kosovo's progress in addressing criteria for membership in the EU and in normalising relations with Serbia, the strengthening regional cooperation.

The EU should exploit the current window of opportunity of nuclear talks and internal developments in Iran, which favour both domestic reform and better EU-Iran relations, says Parliament in a resolution passed on Thursday. It also calls on the EU to be more active in addressing the human rights situation and in supporting civil society in Iran.

The 4th EU-Africa Summit brought together more than 60 EU and African leaders, and a total of 90 delegations, to discuss the future of EU-Africa relations and reinforce links between the two continents. In the summit declaration, leaders highlighted the close nature of EU-Africa relations and the shared values of democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law and good governance as well as the right to development.