The final results of the first round of Lithuania's presidential election put Ingrida Simonyte's lead over Gitanas Nauseda at 3,935 votes.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) updated the results after finishing counting the votes of Lithuanian citizens who voted abroad on Monday.

The final results published by the election watchdog show MP Simonyte, the candidate of the conservative Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats, coming first with 31.21 percent of the vote and independent economist Nauseda second with 30.93 percent.

High voter turnout among Lithuanians living abroad in Sunday's presidential election is a basis for starting discussions on establishing one or two separate election constituencies abroad, Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says.

On 13 May, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius participated in the Eastern Partnership Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels.

The Lithuanian Foreign Minister named the Eastern Partnership as one of the most successful policies of the European Union and emphasized its huge practical benefits to ordinary people. 

L. Linkevičius reiterated also Lithuania's strong political commitment to an ambitious Eastern Partnership policy in the future.

Today, May 14, an agreement of fourteen members of the European Union on simplification of military mobility procedures was signed at a meeting in Brussels. 

The programme aimed at concerting and simplifying the procedures applied to cross-border movement of forces between EU members states will be headed by Lithuania.

Lithuania will chair the Managing Committee of the programme: its task is to supervise the implementation and provide guidelines to subordinate expert tasks forces which will be developing technical requirements.

Eurostat announces that industrial production fell down by 0.3% in euro area and 0.1% in EU28 In March 2019 compared with February 2019.

In February 2019, industrial production fell by 0.1% in the euro area and remained stable in the EU28. In March 2019 compared with March 2018, industrial production decreased by 0.6% in the euro area and increased by 0.4% in the EU28.

The highest increases were observed in Lithuania (+3.5%), Denmark (+1.8%) and Slovakia (+1.2%).

Vilnius Airport has launched automated border control gates to facilitate the flow of passengers through the airport, Lietuvos Oro Uostai (Lithuanian Airports) said on Friday.

No other airport in the Baltic countries and Poland currently has such a system, the airport's operator said.

"In addition to the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) counters, we now offer passengers the possibility of self-service border checks," Vilnius Airport CEO Dainius Ciuplys said in a press release.

Smart Energy Fund powered by Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy), and managed by Contrarian Ventures along with Honda, Japanese automobile manufacturer, and other partners invested in Moixa, UK-based company developing smart energy storage devices and virtual power plants technologies, informed representative of the Lietuvos energija.

The UK smart battery specialist has received fresh funding of around 10 mln EUR. Smart Energy Fund managed by Contrarian Ventures has invested 500 thousand EUR. Other investors include ITOCHU Corporation, a Japanese investment house and Fortune 500 company and UK-based venture capital investor First Imagine! Ventures.

Construction is being launched on a 15-million-euro Moxy hotel, part of the Marriott Group, in Lithuania's second-biggest city of Kaunas, with the developers planning to build more Moxy and Marriott hotels in the Baltic countries, informe LETA/BNS.

The new hotel in Kaunas will target primarily young professionals.

Janusz Mitulski, head for development in Central and Eastern Europe at Marriott International, says Kaunas was chosen because of its geographical location and potential.

Officially opened on Friday, the pavilion is the stage of the Sun & Sea (Marina) opera performance by Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte.

The audience can view more than 20 performers lying down on 35 tons of sand and singing for eight hours from above. Visitors are also welcome to join the performers on the artificial beach. They are required to pre-register and bring their bathing suits and towels and lounge on the beach for at least three hours.

In 1932, Arbit Blatas opened the first private gallery in the Baltics in Kaunas. On May 11, the exhibition of the world-recognised Litvak artist will be opened in his hometown.

On May 11, during Gallery Weekend Kaunas, the exhibition “Arbit Blatas (1908–1999): from Kaunas to New York” will be opened at the M. Žilinskas Art Gallery.

Born in Kaunas, Neemija Arbitblatas was a world-recognised Litvak artist of outstanding talent who used to call himself by the creative name Arbit Blatas.