Lietuva in brief - 2006-05-24

  • 2006-05-24
Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas has expressed doubt over Labor Party member Loreta Grauziniene's designation as minister of social security and labor. He said Finance Minister Zigmantas Balcytis may be temporarily appointed as caretaker minister until the new minister is official. "So far, I do not see a situation why [candidates] should be withdrawn. We will see what happens next. There are no doubts about [Foreign Minister] Petras Vaitiekunas, but we have doubts regarding the other person [Grauziniene]. We will have to discuss the issue with the president," Brazauskas told journalists. President Valdas Adamkus postponed a meeting with Grauziniene, a senior Labor Party member, after State Security Police raided the party's headquarters last week.

Lithuania will adopt the euro no earlier than 2009, Brazauskas said after returning from a vacation in Greece. "This is a very serious matter. We will consider it with our coalition partners, tackle all aspects and work out the program. I think we should work out the program till 2009 's concerning the chance for Lithuania to adopt euro," he said. "I think that Lithuania will live with its own currency, the litas, and that is not a bad thing."

Stonewalling on a resolution involving Lithuania's embassy in Rome has infuriated MPs. Since regaining Independence, Lithuanian diplomats have demanded that Italian authorities, who refuse to return the Villa Lituania building, should at least compensate the loss in cash or real estate value. The embassy belonged to Lithuania beginning in 1937 but was later used to house Soviet diplomats. A member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee told Lietuvos Rytas that he and his colleagues had shown almost all-out discontent with such procrastination: "Could it be that they, the never-in-any-hurry southerners that they are, need a good kick? I believe that the committee or some of its members could voice an idea to boycott the would-be reception at the Italian embassy. They could encourage other state-respecting politicians to do likewise."

The Lietuvos Rytas daily reported that officers from the Kaunas Police Traffic Control Service could not believe their eyes when a breathalyzer test showed 7.27. According to the daily, even the most experienced traffic controllers are unable to recall apprehending a more intoxicated driver. The informal record was previously held by a tractor driver from Kedainiai, whose breathalyzer test showed 6.66. Kelme resident Vidmantas Sungaila, 41, was pulled over on the Vilnius-Kaunas highway on May 20 around noon, after his truck was spotted weaving across the two-lane road. When the breathalyzer test revealed a 7.27 readout, the officers wondered if the instrument might be malfunctioning. A second attempt cleared any doubts - the display showed the same digits, toppling the legal blood alcohol