Seimas to stop selling booze

  • 2008-11-28
  • 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 thisday, with the parliament cafe carrying only low percentage alcohol, wine andbeer.

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

"I have never in my three years as an MP bought alcohol in the Seimas andI don't care whether it is available or not. But I am offended by thethought that alcohol is something that should be kept from me and somethingI 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 otherthan the restaurant", Baltraitiene told the Baltic News Service.