Lietuva in brief - 2011-07-07

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis says that relations between Lithuanians and Poles are “great” and that bilateral tensions are caused only by some politicians, reports ELTA. The diplomat said he was given such an impression after meeting with former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on June 30 visited Lithuania and told the Polish community in Vilnius that Poland had good leverage to push Lithuania, even mentioning economic sanctions. Azubalis, though, told reporters on the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies that “I sat next to the former Polish president, Kwasniewski, and we spoke about the relations between our states. I really felt one thing - relations between Lithuanian and Polish societies are great.”

A survey carried out by the public opinion and market research company Vilmorus for the Lithuanian Life Insurance Companies Association (LGDIA) showed that 7 of 10 Lithuanian residents think that it is important to accumulate money for the future of their children, however, only 4 of 10 are actually saving money, reports ELTA. The majority of parents set aside 100 litas (29 euros) every month, hoping it will be enough to cover children’s study expenses. According to president of the LGDIA, Arturas Baksinskas, the most common reason for not saving money is a shortage of it. People aged from 30 to 39 are the most frequently saving group of the population because they usually have small children. Baksinskas notes that by starting to save 100 litas per months when a child starts to go to school allows accumulating only 13,000 litas until the child’s adulthood, which is half the actual cost of tuition.