Lietuva in brief - 2013-07-11

The Seimas Committee on National Security and Defense (NSGK) has begun Lithuania’s Presidency of the EU by conducting several high-level meetings, reports ELTA. During the meetings not only Lithuania’s priorities in the area of Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) were presented, but also the global security situation, challenges for the EU and how to overcome them were discussed. On July 5, in the meeting between NSGK, the chairs of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok preparation was discussed for the most important parliamentary event in the area of foreign policy and defense, which is to be held on Sept. 4-6 in the Seimas – the Interparliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign And Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy. Chairman of NSGK Arturas Paulauskas said that the EU should not duplicate well functioning structures such as NATO. Paulauskas expects concrete conclusions to be made in the Interparliamentary Conference.

Minister of Justice Juozas Bernatonis will participate in the workshop ‘The Proposal for a Common European Sales Law: the Way Forward,’ organized by the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament and together with the members of the European and national parliaments and experts were to discuss the future of the proposal on July 10 in Brussels, reported ELTA. The goal of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for members of European Parliament and representatives of national Parliaments to question the experts and give their input into the debates on the proposal of the European Commission for a Common European Sales Law. This proposal is key in facilitating trade within the EU and providing a greater protection for consumers, especially in performing cross-border and online transactions. The proposal for a Common European Sales Law is among the priorities during the Lithuania Presidency of the Council of the EU in the field of justice.

Mindaugas Linge, presidential advisor on internal affairs, says that a decision approved by the Seimas last week is of questionable constitutionality, reports ELTA. The mentioned decision rehabilitated the candidates of the Labor Party, who were suspected of violations of the Law on Elections to the Seimas. Linge also has doubts if the members of the parliamentary group of the Labor Party have not confused interests, since they participated in the voting. On Tuesday, during an interview with radio Ziniu Radijas, the presidential advisor said that by approving this decision the Seimas ignored the judgment of the Constitutional Court (KT) on the mentioned candidates. “Indeed, KT has made a judgement that there were serious violations of the Law on the Election to the Seimas as well as vote buying during the last parliamentary elections. It was recognized that these violations had influence on the election results, yet the Seimas, ending its session at the moment, made a decision of questionable constitutionality on the final results of parliamentary election,” said Linge.