Lithuania should not support the ratification of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, Lithuania’s Agriculture Minister, Ignas Hofmanas, stated, Baltic News Network reports. Speaking in an interview with LRT, Hofmanas insisted that Lithuania should wait for the European Commission’s “detailed explanation” of the free trade agreement. Earlier, the rural affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas,…
Latvia’s national airline, airBaltic, has announced that it will cancel flights on 19 routes and reduce flights on 21 routes in summer 2025 due to engine maintenance, LSM reports. The company will cancel flights from Riga to Aberdeen, Belgrade, Cluj-Napoca, Gothenburg, Mykonos, Pristina, Rzeszów, Skopje, Stavanger, and Yerevan. Also, the company will cancel flights from…
Raising Lithuania’s defence spending to 4% of GDP would allow the country’s new army division to reach full operational capacity by 2030, Lithuania’s defence chief, General Raimundas Vaiksnoras, stated, Baltic News Network reports. Lithuania’s new government has increased its borrowing limit for 2025 by around EUR 800mn. The full amount would raise the defence budget…
Lithuania’s state-owned investment firm EPSO-G Invest and ammunition manufacturer Giraites Ginkluotes Gamykla (GGG) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture, Rheinmetall Defence Lithuania, with German defence industry group Rheinmetall, Baltic News Network reports. Under the agreemnt, the companies will invest in an artillery ammunition plant in the town of Baisogala in Lithuania’s Radviliskis district. Rheinmetall…
The passenger train operators of the three Baltic States will open an easier connection from Tallinn via Tartu and Riga to Vilnius on 6 January 2025, BNS reports, citing Vooremaa. The new connection harmonises carrier timetables and will include two transfers. The whole journey from Tallinn to Vilnius will take around 10.5 hours in total,…
Last year was Lithuania’s warmest ever recorded, according to data from the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service (LHMT), BNS reports. The average annual air temperature in Lithuania was 9.5 degrees Celsius in 2024, which was 2.1 degrees higher than the average temperature in 1991-2020. All months except January were warmer in 2024 than the long-term average. The…
Lithuania will propose that the three Baltic States build a joint power plant to ensure flexible electricity production and energy security, Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas announced, BNS reports. Speaking on LRT, the minister suggested that the power plant could run on gas. He did not elaborate on the possible technology and location of the…
Lithuania’s Interior Minister, Vladislav Kondratovic, sees no need to relax existing restrictions on the entry of Belarusian citizens into Lithuania, BNS reports. Lithuania has stopped issuing new visas to Belarusian citizens with few exceptions and has closed four out of six checkpoints on the border with Belarus. Moreover, Belarusians arriving in the country are subject…
Latvia’s general age of retirement was raised to 65 years as of 1 January 2025, BNS reports. At the same time, the minimum time of employment to be eligible for old-age pension rose to 20 years. In 2024, the retirement age was 64 years and 9 months, while the working requirement was no less than…