Lietuva in brief - 2009-03-11

  • 2009-03-11
The amount of municipal waste per person in Lithuania was lower than the EU average in in 2007, and the majority of the waste was put in a landfill, the latest data from Eurostat has found. According to Eurostat, Lithuania generated 400 kilograms of municipal waste per person in 2007 's the indicator put it in the same group with Belgium, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and Slovenia, which have values between 400 and 500 kilograms of municipal waste per person. The bulk of Lithuania's municipal waste - 96 percent - was put in landfills in 2007, with the remaining 2 percent recycled and 2 percent composted.

Lithuania's Polish community protested in front of the Czech Embassy in Vilnius to oppose what they see as limits Lithuania has imposed on the ethnic minority rights. "Caps imposed on ethnic minority rights in the domains of education, language and restitution of land raise the most concerns," said Janina Klimasevska of the Vilnius branch of the Union of Lithuanian Poles, the party holding the protest. The rally drew about 100 ethnic Poles, Russians and Belarusians from Vilnius and Trakai. The Czech Embassy was chosen because it currently holds the EU presidency. Lithuanian Poles have been trying to legitimize the spelling of their first and last names in Polish, not Lithuanian letters, for over a decade.

The majority of Lithuania's city residents would assess the performance of the Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius-led government, which would mark its 100th day in power on March 18, as average or low, a recent survey from the Veidas weekly has found. Some 42.8 percent of city residents are of average opinion about the performance of the government, about 37 percent were of low opinion, and 20.2 percent praised the performance of the Cabinet. Still, 31 percent said Kubilius' performance was the best compared with his recent predecessors. The research and consulting company Prime Consulting polled 500 city residents on February 23-25.

Top officials at the Lithuanian and U.K. Foreign Ministries agreed that consolidating the European Union internal market and continuing efforts toward the elimination of obstacles standing in the way of mobility of goods, services and capital would be the most credible strategy for overcoming economic and financial hardships. "Protectionism leads to the decrease of competitiveness, which only increases economic and social problems, that's why we have to be united in the European Union, we have to guarantee equal conditions for competition in the EU's internal market among companies from all member states," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said after a meeting with British Foreign Minister David Miliband.

Special computer software will be launched in Lithuania this May to help voters decide which party to support in the upcoming European Parliament elections. The software will assist voters in choosing the party that best adheres to their political views. On the EU Profile Web site, voters will have to answer 30 political questions by indicating their level of approval or disapproval of the statements. Based on the answers, the program will suggest a party that best conforms to the person's political priorities.