3 July 2008
According to Speaker of the Seimas Česlovas Juršėnas,
Polish autonomy in Lithuania is a history. We can forget it, said the Speaker
of the Seimas while opening the international conference The Epoch of
Turning-points 19182008 in Warsaw together with Vice-marshal of the Polish
Sejm Jarosław Kalinowski. In the opinion of Mr. Juršėnas, a new situation has
formed: we are members of the European Union and NATO.
Česlovas Juršėnas highlighted
that we have come to this international conference to talk openly, thus we
have to discuss all painful issues. The Head of the Lithuanian Parliament
reminded that in 1990 Moscow tried to influence the Poles belonging to the
Vilnija organisation, thus seeking for autonomy was a political matter. We
therefore want you to understand that ill feeling which emerges from time to
time when solving bilateral issues where your requests are sometimes
well-grounded, said Mr. Juršėnas.
The discussions of the conference
pointed out that, despite the fact that the state-regional interest is still
often outbalanced by the national-cultural one, the number of cases of good,
strategic cooperation is increasing, e.g. cooperation between Solidarność
(Independent Self-governing Trade Union) and Sąjūdis (Reform Movement of
Lithuania), common aims in the field of EU energy safety and EU enlargement,
etc. The more active we are in the European Union, the closer we find
ourselves to Poland and the Poles. In Europe, Lithuania and Poland are
encouraged to return to a wider common identity, Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Žygimantas Pavilionis
shared his experience in the conference.
According to Speaker of the
Seimas Česlovas Juršėnas, we have to reach a mutual understanding. Heads of
the Lithuanian and Polish parliaments unanimously agreed with the idea that
national minorities were our wealth, they had to be spoken about and their problems
had to be solved. The benefit of similar conferences is therefore obvious.
On 12 July, Speaker of the
Lithuanian Seimas Česlovas Juršėnas paid a working visit to Warsaw, where he
attended the 18th session of the Lithuanian-Polish Parliamentary
Assembly and the international conference The Epoch of Turning-points
19182008. Mr. Juršėnas opened the exhibition of Vilnius Cathedral Treasury in
the Royal Castle in Warsaw, met with Marshal of the Polish Sejm Bronisław
Komorowski, and talked to the representatives of the descendants of the Great
Seimas.
Secretariat of the Speaker of
the Seimas
