Poland's parlt speaker invites neighbors to Warsaw to discuss Europe's future

  • 2018-03-11
  • LETA/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – In a congratulatory speech at the Lithuanian parliament for restoration of the country's independence in Vilnius on Saturday, Poland's Sejm Speaker Marek Kuchcinski invited to step up both bilateral and regional cooperation.

"We are faced with a number of challenges – we must support the issues that have to do with Poles in Lithuania and Lithuanians in Poland, which we see as the biggest value of our joint heritage. We want to discuss these issues by restoring the Parliamentary Assembly, which includes the Polish Sejm and Senate and Lithuania's Seimas," Kuchcinski said at the parliament.

The operations of the format of cooperation between Lithuanian and Polish parliamentarians was frozen back in 2009 at the initiative of Polish politicians.

During a visit by Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis in Warsaw last week, Poles pledged to initiate the first meeting of the assembly.

The Polish speaker also accentuated he wanted to consolidate the cooperation among the Baltic states and Poland, inviting parliamentary leaders of countries in the region to come to Warsaw.

"Regional cooperation in all of Central Europe is crucial, therefore, we will do our best to do this. We are inviting parliamentary speakers of Central Europe to Warsaw in July for a joint discussion of Europe's future and the whole of the European Union," said Kuchcinski.

On Sunday, Lithuania marks the 28th anniversary of restoration of independence and the 100th birth anniversary of the anti-Soviet resistance commander Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas.

The Supreme Council of Lithuania on Mar. 11, 1990 adopted the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania in a vote of 124 with six abstentions, thus making Lithuania the first Soviet republic to separate from Moscow.