Seimas to stop selling booze

Nov 28, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

VILNIUS - The board of the Seimas (Lithuanian parliiament) has prohibited alcohol sales on the grounds in an effort to cut down on lawmaker drinking.

The law is set to go into effect at the start of next year.

Alcohol retail in the Seimas restaurant has been unrestricted to this day, with the parliament cafe carrying only low percentage alcohol, wine and beer.

Deputy Parliamentary Speaker and member of the Labor Party Virginija Baltraitiene, however, felt this prohibition to be a long shot from solving the problem.

"I have never in my three years as an MP bought alcohol in the Seimas and I don't care whether it is available or not. But I am offended by the thought that alcohol is something that should be kept from me and something I couldn't choose to purchase. And this is not going to solve the problem, as those MPs who walk around drunk daily do their drinking someplace other than the restaurant", Baltraitiene told the Baltic News Service.

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