Seimas Ethics Commission members suspend work

On Dec. 9 the members of Lithuania’s Seimas Commission for Ethics and Procedures, who have suspended their membership in the Commission, turned to the Board of the Seimas and informed it that sittings organized by the Commission are invalid, while the Commission itself has been established as violating the principles of the Seimas Statute, reports ELTA.

This position was expressed by conservatives Valentinas Stundys, Vytautas Juozapaitis and Stasys Sedbaras, liberal Dalia Teiserskyte and member of mixed political group Povilas Urbsys during a press conference on Wednesday.

"The Commission for Ethics and Procedures today cannot function and make decisions. The rest of the Commission, of course, can discuss, talk, meet and be glad; however, the Statute does not provide a possibility to organize valid sittings after the chair of the Commission suspends his duties," said MP Valentinas Stundys, who has suspended his duties as the chair of the Commission.

According to MP Dalia Teiserskyte, the ruling parties have all the possibilities for manipulating the Commission.

The members, who have suspended their membership in the Commission, claimed they were not seeking to paralyze the work of the Commission, but to begin an open discussion. "We have to fundamentally review principles and procedure of the composition of the Commission," said Stundys.

Indignant about the reading of MP Viktor Uspaskich's legal immunity, five members of the Commission for Ethics and Procedures, who represent the opposition, announced they were suspending their membership in the Commission. They claimed they refused to work in a commission where the will of the political majority prevailed.