Lithuanian and Polish parliamentary committees set outlines of common work

VILNIUS – With Lithuania marking the 30th anniversary of bloody events of January 13, 1991, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Seimas of Lithuania on Wednesday held a joint sitting with their colleagues from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Sejm of Poland.

The Polish MPs emphasized that January 13 was a significant day not just for Lithuania but also for the entire Central European region as it had laid the foundations for the liberation of other countries from the totalitarian regime and had sped up the establishment of the Visegrad Group, the Office of the Seimas said in a press release.

MPs from the two countries agreed to pursue closer cooperation in addressing challenges in the region and across the world.

“One of the interests that are important for both countries relate to free and democratic elections in Belarus,” the press release said.

In addition, the MPs agreed to cooperate “in assessing the decade’s achievements and mistakes of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership” so as to set up a framework for a “revised Eastern Partnership policy”.

The two committees would on February 4 adopt a declaration to mark the 275th birth anniversary of Tadas Kosciuska, known as Tadeusz Kosciuszko in Poland, according to the press release. The MPs invited representatives of Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress and the Belarusian opposition to join the declaration.

Also, Marek Kuchcinski, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Polish parliament, accepted an invitation to attend the second international conference named after Konstantinas Kalinauskas, known in Poland as Konstanty Kalinowski, leader of national revival in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus and one of the commanders of the 1863–1864 uprising against Tsarist Russia. The Lithuanian Seimas would host the event on March 22.

Lithuanian MPs, in their turn, were invited to take part in the meetings of Visegrad Group, three Baltic countries and the Bucharest Nine organized by the Polish parliament.

The Polish MPs also expressed their support to the Lublin Four initiative of the Lithuanian president.