The European Commission (EC) has criticised Estonia and Lithuania for failing to transpose an EU directive on the rights of child suspects properly into national legislation, BNS reports. The EC opened an infringement procedure by sending a formal notice for failure to transpose the EU directive on procedural safeguards for children suspected or accused of…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda criticised Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas for sharing information on Lithuania’s plans to sign a letter of intent on the purchase of Leopard tanks from Germany, LRT reports. Nauseda said that the State Defence Council (VGT) had agreed that restricted information “should not be shared on Facebook right after the meeting.” He…
Protesters in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, have asked the government to protect the Kedainiai-based fertiliser producer, Lifosa, from closure, BNS reports. Around 300 protesters took part in a rally outside the government office in central Vilnius on 26 July 2023. Kristina Krupaviciene, chairwoman of the Solidarumas (Solidarity) trade union, said that the goal of the rally…
The Lithuanian government has allocated EUR 276mn from borrowed funds for military mobility and infrastructure projects in 2023, BNS reports. Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste said that the Defence Ministry would invest EUR 148mn and the Ministry of Transport and Communications another EUR 128mn in the first year of the investment programme. Total investments in military…
Canada’s new defence attaché to Lithuania, Colonel Robert Foster, was accredited at the Lithuanian Defence Ministry on 26 July 2023, BNS reported. Prior to his appointment, Foster served as Canada’s defence attaché in Ukraine for the past four years. Lithuania’s Defence Minister, Arvydas Anusauskas, expressed hope for greater military cooperation with Canada, which has deployed…
The foreign ministers of the three Baltic States have sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), expressing concern about recommendations to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris under a neutral flag, BNS reports. In their joint letter to IOC president Thomas Bach, the ministers…
Authorities in Lithuania’s port city of Klaipeda have recommended people not to swim in the Baltic Sea, following a leak of sewage from a water treatment plant in Latvia’s Liepaja, LRT reports. Authorities are now analysing samples to determine the quality of the water. Latvia’s State Environmental Service (VVD) assured that the sewage leak posed…
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, Transport Minister Marius Skuodis, and Agriculture Minister Kestutis Navickas have sent a joint letter to the European Commission, in which they call for helping Ukraine export more grain via the Baltic States, BNS reports. The ministers argued that Baltic ports, railways, and roads could serve as a viable alternative route…
Lithuania’s State Defence Council (VGT) has instructed the government to agree with Latvia and Estonia on the synchronisation of the Baltic power grids with the continental European system and disconnection from Russia’s BRELL system by February 2025, BNS reports. Kestutis Budrys, chief national security adviser to President Gitanas Nauseda, said that there was “no fundamental…