During the Midsummer weekend, the Delegation of the Lithuanian Seimas took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Irish Parliament in Dublin.

“I can only confirm that a great interest in the first Lithuanian Presidency was expressed at the COSAC meeting in Dublin. As many as 115 participants will attend the COSAC meeting in Vilnius in July 2013. The parliamentary delegations of the EU Member States are going to be more numerous than usual,” said Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, yesterday on his return from Dublin, Ireland. On 23–25 June 2013, he, together with Petras Auštrevičius, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Andrius Mazuronis, Deputy Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, attended the COSAC (Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs) meeting.

During the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Meeting of the Chairpersons of COSAC will take place on 7–8 July 2013 at the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania in Vilnius. The Plenary Meeting of COSAC will be held on 27–29 October 2013. Many proposals for supplementing the agenda of the latter meeting were floored in Dublin, as Mr Kirkilas confirmed.

Morta Vidūnaitė,  Adviser to Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, tel.: +370 5 239 6278, mob. +370 612 0 121, e-mail: [email protected]