VILNIUS – Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite will propose the Lithuania-Poland education commission in an effort to facilitate faster settlement of education problems for national minorities. Poland's president has expressed hope that problems of Poles in Lithuania would be addressed.
"Bilateral relations, for instance, in the field of education and in connection to the Polish community and representatives of Poles in Lithuania are also solved and will be solved. The issues must indeed be settled, if there are problems about examinations or something else," Grybauskaite told a news conference after a face-to-face meeting with Poland's President Andrzej Duda.
The Lithuanian leader said she was ready to revive the bilateral education commission that has been idle since 2011.
In Grybauskaite's words, the revival is possible amid the warmer political climate between Lithuania and Poland, and members of the commission could address more than just education matters but also, for instance, land restitution issues.
Duda told journalists he was convinced that national minority issues could be settled.
"I believe that all misunderstandings and problems, which existed and continue to exist, can be tackled," said the Polish president.
He added he felt good will from Grybauskaite and Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, as well as their aspiration to constructively settle matters of national minorities.
Around 200,000 Polish nationals reside in Lithuania. Over the past five years, Lithuania had frozen top-level visits to Vilnius, accusing Lithuania over the situation of the Polish national community. Lithuania's government has rejected the majority of the critical remarks.
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