By Edvardas Špokas, Enrika Gecaitė, LRT TV, LRT.lt, Aistė Valiauskaitė.

Lithuania is in the final stretch of preparations to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of next year – a six-month stint that will bring hundreds of meetings, and thousands of visiting officials, to Vilnius. But even as workers scramble to renovate parliament and repave city streets, the capital is about to become slightly harder to reach by air.

A parliament under repair

Workers, not lawmakers, have become the regular fixture at Lithuania’s parliament, the Seimas, this summer.

Corridors are being refurbished, the historic Hall of March 11 – where Lithuania’s 1990 declaration of independence was signed – is being restored, and previously unused spaces are being converted, all at a cost of around €1.2 million.

Visiting delegations are set to arrive through the courtyard, which is also being tidied up, though parliament received only a single bid when it put the courtyard work out to tender. Contractors, it turns out, aren’t queuing up for jobs that must be squeezed into the narrow gaps between sessions.

The fact that the Hall of March 11 is a listed heritage space doesn’t help either, as renovators’ hands are largely tied.

Read more: LRT.LT