10 March,
First sitting of the Sixth (Spring) Seimas Session
Dear
colleagues,
I would like
to welcome each of you having come to the Spring Session on such a lovely
spring day. I could not call it otherwise but a certain blessing of God, since
the day is truly a beautiful one. I hope the spring-like weather will inspire
everybody to new energy and new ideas, which would significantly contribute to
the wellbeing of our country.
This term the maturity of the
Seimas should manifest itself through a really productive work. The legislation
agenda of the Parliament is dictated by public expectations and the current
political, economic and social context. Recently, the greatest expectations of
the Lithuanian society have, in fact, borne the socio-economic character: first
and foremost, the solution of problems such as social deprivation, widening gap
between the rich and the poor and many others. Furthermore, Eurointegration
processes and subsequent results, such as economic emigration, have even more
sharply brought to life national demographic issues, decreasing birth rate, and
ageing population. These issues could be addressed by taking advantage of the
economic performance positively affecting the social and healthcare system. The
people are also concerned with some public political problems, such as national
government, public administration, and political corruption, to name just a few
of them. It should be noted that, in the people’s opinion, the political system
in Lithuania fails to satisfy the criteria of democracy and to ensure the
proper representation of their interests at the governmental level. The
resulting high level of passiveness prevents the communication between citizens
and the political government in discussing the national problems of communities
in individual regions. It is noteworthy that weak organization of the people
shows the weakness of both: the civil society and the entire democratic system.
Therefore, a comprehensive promotion of the spirit of citizenship and community
should be included in the public policy as a key priority. The latest
macroeconomic indicators in Lithuania are really good suggesting the solution
to many social and economic problems. Today, I would like to focus on several
issues of public policy, which should be given priority in the legislation
agenda of the Seimas Spring Session.
At the
level of public and local government and public administration, main
concern should be given, first of all, to the improvement of local governance,
as well as review of legal regulation of political campaigns, political
parties, civil service and conduct of civil servants. Here, the ruling by the
Constitutional Court offered the Seimas clear guidelines for choice.
Independent candidates must be granted the right to announce one’s candidacy at
the local government elections. The point is how to make the process as
effective as possible to secure not merely the enforcement of this right at
local level, but also the political stability and efficient and professional
governance. The current situation favours seeing all the local problems on a
wider scale. After all, the Seimas will have to decide and find solutions in
the near future satisfying the public interests, including the procedure of
local government elections and direct elections of a mayor, definition of the
functions of a mayor and council, as well as balancing their powers. The
amended Law on Local Government will search for ways how to strengthen the
activities of wards and to involve more representatives of local communities in
the management of local affairs. All this offers the possibility to restore the
people’s trust in the government and their spirit of community and citizenship.
Numerous violations of rules in the last local government elections were
outrageous for the extent they reached. The Seimas will inevitably have to
return to the issue of ensuring fair rules of election campaigns. To that end,
the Spring Session will give prominence to the transparency of political
campaigns and funding of political parties. Funding sources should be such as
to prevent the intentions and possibilities to influence the national political
life and political decisions. We lack, however, the common vision how it should
be implemented. Therefore, we should decide on all draft laws currently under
discussion and, where possible, on complex revision of those laws rather than
adopting individual amendments.
What is more, the Spring
Session should include a run of amendments of the Law on Civil Service. This
adoption would, firstly, improve the civil service relations; then, review the
provisions on civil service evaluation and higher basic salary for civil
servants of the lowest category, which is their greatest expectation. Taking
into account the recommendations of … and public interest in civil service
problems, it is also essential to finally put into practice the idea of the
Code of Conduct for civil servants.
The social
policy has one priority, namely, reducing the social gap. Regardless of the
improving economical situation, there are still too many of those, who lack a
secured and dignified life quality. Unfortunately, we have failed to implement
effective instruments for poverty reduction to this day. On the contrary, the
current decisions might have actually increased the gap between the poor and
the rich. The facts suggest that the hardest time is for single-parent and
large families. With our aspirations to improve the demographic situation in
Lithuania and reduce emigration, I believe, those and young families should be
at the heart of the social policy. It is worthwhile mentioning that the Seimas
should initiate the adoption of law amendments providing as favourable
conditions as possible to fight the poverty and social gap at all levels. One
more very important aspect in the social policy is social partnership. The
development of the draft Law on Vocational Training including collaboration
with social partners produced quite good results. The opinion of the employers’
organizations and trade unions will also be of great importance to the Spring
Session determining the necessity to provide certain social services to
employees.
In the field
of economics, business and finance, I would like to single out four main
legislation issues, namely, ensuring fiscal discipline, improvement of legal
basis in the energy sector, promotion of SMEs and regional development.
The first
priority was dictated by the latest events. Rapid economic development and the
EU structural support that substantially increased will cause more difficulties
in the management of growing prices as until now. Thus, the adoption of the Law
on Fiscal Discipline would serve as an important step in implementing
anti-inflation measures. As regards energy issues, laws will be proposed on the
construction of the new nuclear power station. Besides, the Seimas will have to
decide on the much-debated draft laws on natural gas and heat energy. So far,
the priority of SMEs development has been more of a declarative character
rather than real. The promotion of small business forms the middle class, which
is the central matrix of the civil society. In this respect, the environment
should be created to encourage a person to earn money on his own and prevent
poverty in this way. Finally, it is not the first time that the narrowing of
regional gaps is declared as the priority of the public policy. And we have a
unique chance to address the problem of regional development by means of the
structural support provided by the European Union. Therefore, the Spring
Session will discuss the proposals to extend the powers of regional development
at councils and regional administrations transferring them part of the
functions relating to the primary project selection.
A lot of
priorities in the field of law and order and law enforcement deal with
the reduction of the extreme accident rate on national roads, relentless
corruption, solution of the problems in the judicial system and efficiency of
public services. The behaviour of drivers and rising number of accidents on the
roads cause particular concern. The events in recent years fuelled wide-ranging
talks about means and ways how to decrease the number of accidents and death
rate on the roads.
The Spring Session plans to
adopt the amendments to the Code of Regulatory Offences, the Law on Safety on
Car Roads being drafted by the Seimas working group and other laws, which
should cut the accident and death rate on national roads. Last, but not least,
is the adoption of certain manners, which we, unfortunately, also miss in other
spheres of public life. The dimensions of corrupt practices do not shrink;
therefore, the adoption of the Code of Conduct for civil servants should create
adverse conditions for the development of corruption. What is more, a working
group has been set up recently to prepare amendments concerning the
responsibility of civil servants and comparable persons in disposing of
property, which origin of acquisition lacks grounds. This may also serve as a
contribution to overcome the difficulties.
Summing up, I
would like to wish to all members of the Seimas an intensive, constructive and
creative work. This is what our people are waiting for thinking of the
country’s future and wellbeing. May I also share my happiness with you all at
the forthcoming national holiday. Thank you for your attention.
