On 14 December, Mr Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, invited the diplomatic corps residing in Lithuania to the first meeting. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Speakers Irena Degutienė, Gediminas Kirkilas, and Algirdas Sysas who gave their greetings to the Ambassadors too.
In his address to the Ambassadors, the Speaker of the Seimas thanked them for the congratulations to the newly elected Seimas and to him personally. “I am looking forward to and hope that we will continue our nice cooperation in developing mutually beneficial relations among our countries and our parliaments”, Mr Gedvilas said.
For more detail please see the verbatim report of the meeting:
Speaker Vydas GEDVILAS
Dear Colleagues,
Excellences Ambassadors,
I am very pleased indeed to welcome you to the Seimas. This is my first meeting in my capacity as the newly elected Speaker of the Seimas and the leader of the new term of the Seimas with the diplomatic corps residing in Lithuania. Let me take this opportunity to, first and foremost, thank you for the congratulations to the newly elected Seimas and to me personally. I am looking forward to and hope that we will continue our nice cooperation in developing mutually beneficial relations among our countries and our parliaments. I wish to introduce the leadership of the Seimas 2012-2016. You see the name card of the First Deputy Speaker – Vytautas Gapšys who, I believe, will join us shortly. The other Deputy Speakers here today: most probably you know Irena Degutienė very well, the former Speaker of the Seimas; as well as Algirdas Sysas; and Gediminas Kirkilas, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee and Deputy Speaker who covers all European matters. We have here Chairman of the Committee on National Security and Defence, Artūras Paulauskas, who was the Speaker of the Seimas some time ago. The Seimas leaders are competent and experienced in parliamentary work and we will try to resolve every matter of concern in a positive manner.
Let me now share a few thoughts about the topicalities of the Lithuanian domestic policy and the major forthcoming tasks. The new Seimas has been working for almost a month already, all the main structures: committees, commissions and political groups have been formed. We will shortly have Seimas delegations to international parliamentary organisations. Quite a few groups for inter-parliamentary relations have already been set up. Yesterday, on 13 December 2012, the new Government of the Republic of Lithuania were sworn in and the Government Programme was approved by the Seimas. Lithuania as well as the other two Baltic states was hit by the 2008 financial crisis. The economy is growing now; therefore, it is high time we turned to the man. The ruling majority is very clear about its goal to take a path to a welfare state.
The main priorities identified by the Government (that would like to mention): higher employment, lower unemployment, less poverty and social exclusion, opportunities for real wages to grow, more favourable conditions for investment and business, financial sustainability and gradual increase of public funds, fight against smuggling and shadow economy, combating corruption, preparation for the introduction of the euro, efficient utilisation of European Union funds aimed at higher competitiveness and human wellbeing. And a comprehensive revision of the taxation system.
Our Government sees dealing with Sodra debts, gradual raise of retirement pensions and the amounts paid in social benefits, resolution of energy problems, changes in the education and higher education policy, development of the science and technology policy, etc. as important tasks it must undertake.
The Seimas is determined to actively work in cooperation with the Government in its effort to attain those goals. The adoption of the budget for 2013 is the work to be done in the coming weeks. We expect the incumbent Government to review the draft budget submitted by the former Government for consideration to the Seimas without any significant amendments, although some changes are possible. Lithuania’s foreign policy is traditionally characterised by continuity and follows the principle of consensus among the key political powers. Therefore the main focus continues to be our membership of the European Union and NATO, close transatlantic cooperation and good relations with neighbouring countries.
The Board of the Seimas endorsed long-term priorities of Seimas international cooperation in 2011; they are not going to change. However I wish to highlight one priority – Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. You most probably know that Lithuania will hold its first Presidency of the Council in the second half of 2013, which is another proof of our fully-fledged return to the family of democratic and free European nations. I am convinced that Lithuania will fulfil the task in a responsible and honourable manner aiming at the wellbeing of European Union citizens and at a safe and modern Europe. It will also be a perfect opportunity for Lithuania to introduce itself to Europe and the world.
I do believe that the Presidency will be used for strengthening Lithuania’s positions in the European Union. I believe we will reconcile different interests of the European Union Member States and reach an agreement on the decisions most important to the citizens of our country. Our partners in Europe will appreciate Lithuania by its success in fulfilling the task of the Presidency.
Let me emphasise that there is a broad political consensus concerning the upcoming Presidency of the Council. In preparation for the Presidency the parliamentary parties signed an agreement in 2011 where they set forth the key Presidency provisions and priorities. A number of Parliamentary dimension events will be held in the framework of the Presidency. The European Union is living through a period of difficulties and challenges when complicated economic and financial problems need to be tackled. There is a debate going on about the future of the Eurozone and the European Union. That is why we will seek to restore trust in the European Union economy, to promote economic growth and employment, deepen the common market and ensure fiscal stability.
Lithuania is equally keen on continuing further development of the EU internal market, dealing away with energy islands, development of energy and transport infrastructure and paying more attention to the EU external energy policy. Lithuania has always supported democratic processes and euro-integration aspirations in the neighbouring countries and continues to do so, that is why the implementation of the Eastern Partnership initiative of the European Union will remain at the focus of our attention. The voice of parliamentarians as representatives of the nation must be distinctly heard there. The Treaty of Lisbon is sometimes referred to as a treaty on parliaments because it stipulates a more active role of national parliaments in the decision-making process in the European Union. The Declaration of Cooperation among the Parliaments of Ireland, Lithuania and Greece in support of the preparation and fulfilment of the parliamentary dimension of the Presidencies of these three European Union Member States for the period 1 January 2013 – 30 June 2014 was signed in Warsaw in April 2012, seeking to ensure smooth co-operation among the parliaments of the Presidency Trio.
We plan to approve the updated calendar of the parliamentary dimension events sometime soon, but we can already inform you today that the Seimas is going to host the 50th COSAC Plenary Meeting, the Inter-parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy, meetings of specialised committees and other events where MPs of EU parliaments will discuss the future of the EU and its policy fields: energy, employment, economy, agriculture and finance, development of EU languages and culture, and other topical issues.
We will be looking forward to welcoming the Speakers of all EU Member State parliaments in Vilnius in 2014. It is noteworthy, however, that all these events will gain their true value and meaning only when they are based on close dialogue with the public, non-governmental organisations, and social partners.
2013 has been designated as the European Year of Citizens. I am confident, therefore, that the Seimas will put every effort to enliven its dialogue with citizens to better represent their interests. Let me kindly remind you that a special website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union was launched on 9 May 2012, Europe Day, where you can find all the detailed information: eu2012.lrs.lt. Lithuanian Seimas delegations will further participate in the activities of various international parliamentary organisations such as the Baltic Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and others; we will be developing relations between and among the parliaments of Baltic and Nordic countries, between Lithuania and Poland, Ukraine and other parliaments.
Due attention will be paid to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Being a trustworthy member of the Alliance, meeting its commitments to the Alliance and participating in the NATO missions are important elements of the Lithuanian security policy. The Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly will take place in Vilnius in 2014.
Let me now touch upon the continuity of some long-term priorities and activities. I am referring to our security and defence policy. As you are aware, in May 2012, the Lithuanian parliamentary parties signed an agreement regarding the defence policy for 2012–2016. We will put every effort to implement this agreement, and our intention is to start from appropriate funding of our national defence system. In order to be reliable and determined members of the Alliance, we have to seek modernisation of our armed forces and further participation in multinational operations and missions. Therefore, with the economic situation improving, budget allocations to our national defence should grow.
Energy policy. The Board of the Seimas has set up a working group. As we all know, the referendum, the consultative referendum, was held, to know the public opinion on a nuclear power plant and its possible construction. So we have got the working group; and the resolution submitted by the group of Seimas Members has been registered for consideration by the Seimas. The next step is to ask the Government for a decision concerning the outcome of the referendum and the construction of a nuclear power plant.
The holiday season approaching, I would like to conclude with an optimistic note. The latest public opinion polls indicate people’s growing trust in the Seimas. I accept it as a special responsibility and task to myself as a new leader and the whole institution of the Seimas, to seek higher quality of our activities, which would help us gain unshakeable trust and support of our people.
It is my wish and I believe that by joining efforts in this term of office and seeking progress in our country, we will not be satisfied with a “narrow victory”, as we say in basketball, but will score a “comfortable resounding victory”. While you, Excellences, I hope, will help us in building bridges between our countries.
Thanking you for your attention I would now like to give the floor to my colleagues, Deputy Speakers of the Seimas, who wish to have it: Deputy Speaker Irena Degutienė.
Irena DEGUTIENĖ. Excellences Ambassadors,
I truly know you all in person and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the cooperation with each of you individually. I will cherish the fondest memories of our meetings because they were not only official but also human. Apart from formal exchanges, we managed to talk honestly and openly about the problems of our countries. Therefore, I am very grateful to you for the three years we spent working together.
Since holiday season is approaching, I want to wish Merry Christmas to all believers, and may the coming New Year be better for us all. We all know that the past year was perhaps more complex for each of us individually and for our countries as well because they had to live through a rather difficult period. Challenges arose in the form of the economic crisis which affected every citizen of your countries and our country alike.
It is my hope and genuine belief that regardless of the bad connotation of the figure 13, the year 2013 will bring more success to the citizens of your countries and of Lithuania. I would like to wish every one of you personally and your families to stay strong and enjoy good luck, love and patience.
Thank you once again for your cooperation and I hope to meet you again. I have come to represent the Opposition, but under the Statute of the Seimas, the Opposition has the right to nominate candidates to the position of the Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and, as a matter of fact, the Speaker of the Seimas and our political group nominated me to the post. I am grateful to our Parliament which elected me to this position by a generous majority. Thus, Excellences Ambassadors, I hope to meet you again, most probably next year.
Vydas GEDVILAS. Thank you, Deputy Speaker Irena Degutienė. The floor is given to Gediminas Kirkilas, Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs.
GEDIMINAS KIRKILAS. Excellences Ambassadors,
Making a warmer and more elegant welcome address and greeting on the forthcoming Christmas and New Year than Ms Degutienė did is a very challenging task, but I will try to address it. I am telling you that one need not fear the figure 13/2013. For example, I was the 13th on the party list for the recent elections and got elected to the Parliament. So, it is not entirely a bad figure.
On a more serious note, we genuinely appreciate your work and our cooperation. I had an opportunity to meet many of you both in my previous official positions and now in my capacity of Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. I have to inform you that the composition of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs has been renewed. To be exact, nearly half of the MPs in the Committees come from the pool of the newly elected parliamentarians and are new to the Committees. Even so, most of the Committee Members, including Mr Auštrevičius, Mr Kubilius (former Prime Minister) and myself, have worked on EU integration before. Our long-term cross-party agreements on integration into the European Union were signed long before Lithuania’s accession.
The first agreements were made in 1996 and 1997. We continue with this practice and, as the Speaker of the Seimas has said today, all the major parliamentary parties in Lithuania agree on the priorities for our Presidency in the second half of 2013. We have a shared position and joint work to do and we are looking forward to your support. In particular, I hope Ireland will facilitate the agreement on the EU budget for 2014-2020 during the coming semester. If Ireland fails, God forbid, this would mean that we would inherit the budget issue, but I hope this will not happen. Therefore, we very sincerely wish every success to Ireland and look forward to beneficial cooperation. I have no doubt that it will be beneficial.
Another idea I would like to share with you is that, as you know, yesterday the new 16th Lithuanian Government was approved. Its main foreign policy priorities have been formulated. They include our activities within the European Union and relations with our closest neighbours. I would like to emphasize that we will make more efforts in our relations with our closest neighbours.
There are many various problems. There are always problems and they will always exist, but today I can assure you that the new Government, the new Parliament, our Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs will definitely be even more active, in particular in the field of relations with our closest neighbours: the Baltic States, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. With this purpose in mind, we have reviewed the composition of the relevant parliamentary delegations. I have in mind the Seimas Delegation to the Assembly of Members of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland, the Seimas Delegation to the Assembly of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Seimas Delegation to the Trilateral Assembly of Members of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland, and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the Seimas Delegation to the Baltic Assembly.
I equally hope that we will be able to expand our parliamentary relations with Russia and the Kaliningrad Region. As a former Chief Negotiator for the Kaliningrad transit scheme, I have my personal misgivings on the issue. I think that both Lithuania and the Russian side have somewhat abandoned the cooperation during the recent years. To my mind, the contacts and the activities should be resumed.
Let me move on to my last point. In fact, as mentioned by Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, Europe and the whole world are going through a rather difficult financial and economic crisis. Clearly, it is hard for people and the unemployment rates are high. Lithuania is especially concerned about unemployment among young people, but I think that the crisis and the solutions the EU is now looking for will help us all – nations and countries – to come closer together, because, you know, this is the way of thinking in Lithuania: when life is good, everything goes well, but when something bad happens, some kind of a challenge is faced, then we come close together. Perhaps this is our human nature.
This is what I wish to the whole European Union. During its Presidency and work in the Trio, Lithuania jointly with Ireland and Greece will make every effort to ensure this. Therefore, let me once again sincerely congratulate you all on the approaching holidays: Christmas and the New Year. I hope we will continue our good cooperation. Thank you.
Vydas GEDVILAS. Thank you, Gediminas Kirkilas, Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. Let me remind you that Mr Kirkilas was our Prime Minister some time ago, so he is an experienced person and we are glad he is chairing the Committee. Now I give the floor to Algirdas Sysas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas.
Algirdas SYSAS. Thank you Mr Speaker, Excellences Ambassadors,
I cannot boast of the titles held by the previous speaker. I am in this position for the first time, though I am not a newcomer to politics, since I have been a member of the Committee on Social Affairs for 16 years and chaired the Committee for almost two complete terms. The previous two speakers discussed international policy. Mrs Degutienė expressed her best wishes and I can only reiterate them. As the youngest participant of this meeting in terms of experience, I am responsible for the Office of the Seimas. Should you, Excellences Ambassadors, have any problems in this field, feel free to contact me.
Frankly speaking, I had a chance to meet the majority of the Ambassadors. I am a member of several inter-parliamentary friendship groups. Thus, I am always glad to meet you, discuss relevant issues and exchange opinions. I believe that Mr Kirkilas and we all welcome good neighbourhood relations with all countries, no matter whether they are in the East, West, North or South. I believe that it serves as a driving force for the European Union.
Finally, I wish a happy festive season to you and your families. Thank you.
Vydas GEDVILAS. Thank you, Algirdas Sysas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas. Let me now give the floor to the Apostolic Nuncio who will speak on behalf of the whole diplomatic corps.
Luigi BONAZZI. Your Excellency Vydas Gedvilas, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo Pirmininkas, and Mr Kirkilas, and Dear Madam Degutienė, Algirdas Sysas and Artūras Paulauskas. Thank you for inviting us to share your aspirations, your projects which you have just explained to us, which are the projects and aspirations of all the Lithuanian people. And in this sense, really we wish and we also pray that they may come to fulfilment. As you say, Mr President, not just a little victory but a full victory. And on behalf of all my dear friends, dear Ambassadors accredited to Lithuania, I know that all of them they share a common extremely strong love for the countries where we are. Today we will bid farewell to the Ambassador of Finland. And I heard today her to proclaim, to express openly her esteem, her love and also pain that she has not been able to know many aspects of the Lithuanian history and culture in those four years she has been here. On behalf of the Ambassadors, I would like to proclaim our esteem for this capital institution of the Republic of Lithuania, which is the Parliament. We are aware that the Parliament is really a capital place where freedom, democratic institution, democratic law, democratic life of the country is protected and promoted. And in this sense we have really great respect for all, all of your Members of Parliament called to assume and develop this mission, the mission which, let me say in words that probably are not common, for me stands for a kind of special noble expression of what we call charity. You know, charity is not only about doing something good to the poor, the people in need. But charity is first of all promotion of the common good of a country, of its population. And we are really called to fulfil this task, this noble task. And I am glad also, we are glad, I think, to see that we have in front of us the expression of all political parties constituting the political life here in Lithuania together because the art of politics is really the art to unite. And we wish you that, especially to you, Mr President, who knows very well the art of uniting and guiding a team, to be very successful in leading the Parliament to play a fair play for the benefit of the country. Let me share the same opinion as Mr Kirkilas. When I was young, I was always taught that 13 is good, is the number of fortune. I don’t know why the concept is different now. So, best wishes. And also, since our meeting takes place before Christmas time and Christmas is always a moment of renewing to us the love and fidelity of God for us and it is also a kind of new step in our lives, we wish that this new moment, the new step that the Republic of Lithuania is starting with a new Parliament and a new Government to whom we also wish the best, all the best, may that really be a new step filled with good deeds and filled with hope, and we all wish you to constantly work in hope. Thank you.
Vydas GEDVILAS. Thank you for your kind words and wishes. (…)
