Dear Mr. Prime Minister, fellow
MPs! First of all, let me welcome you all at the Spring Session and express my
belief that our work will be as brilliant as the weather we see from the
windows glassed in anew.
The essential mission of the
Members of the Seimas, the Seimas, is to legislate and to develop a framework
for the society and the state. I hope that we are ready to do the work and I
hope that we will be able to set a new tone. The ‘new tone’ means that
Lithuania needs reliable procedures for the development and adoption of laws.
Presently, more than ever before, we need the procedure for ensuring qualified,
public, and transparent coordination of the interests pertaining to different
classes of society. This procedure can prevent us from unfortunate errors and
misunderstandings; it can facilitate regaining or, rather, gaining trust in the
Seimas and in those who adopt legislation. I must speak about the attendance of
the Seimas sittings and about the fact that it is inappropriate to turn the
main platform of the state into a market place or an arena of work for
television cameras exclusively. I call for concerted and constructive work.
Let me highlight four priorities
for the Spring Session. The first one is stabilisation of our financial system
and revision of the Law on Budgeting in an attempt to reduce public expenditure
even further; the Law on the Approval of Financial Indicators of the State and
Municipal Budgets for 2009 will necessarily be amended in the Spring Session.
The second priority involves energy
related issues. I would also add the space-heating sector, electricity and,
beyond doubt, the company Leo LT. Consumers of heat are looking forward
to the draft amendment to the Law on Heat Sector because it is aimed at
enforcing the possibility to recalculate heating price each month thus enabling
more flexible reaction towards the changes in fuel prices.
The Law on the Draft Amendment to
the Law on Electricity is aimed at providing for the National Control
Commission for Prices and Energy to set more objective price ceiling and to
protect the interests of energy consumers in attempts to have the prices
reduced. Following 2 March 2009 Ruling of the Constitutional Court, the Law on
the Nuclear Power Plant will have to be amended in order to eliminate the
conflict between the law stipulating the establishment and activities of the
company Leo LT and the Constitution. Beyond any doubts, this issue will
be the most debated.
The third priority is related to
the economic revival, which translates into the adoption and adjustment of the
action plan and its implementation. In view of the economic revival the
postponement of tax payment will be considered, other legislation will be
amended to provide the people and businesses with the most favourable
conditions during the challenging times.
The fourth priority includes the
reform of higher education and studies. Presently, as you know, the system of
science and studies is regulated by two laws: the Law on Science and Studies
and the Law on Higher Education. The new draft law aims at merging the two
partially overlapping laws and thoroughly modernising the legal norms
stipulated there. This draft law along with the Draft Law on Asset Management,
Utilisation, and Disposal by the State Higher Educational Establishments
provide the legal framework for the reform of science and studies in Lithuania.
The parliamentary political parties of Lithuania came to an agreement regarding
these changes in the education system and signed the Agreement on the Basic
Principles of Science and Studies Reform on 4 June 2007. Those are the four
main priorities.
Among the priority issues in other
fields I would like to single out the following issues: firstly, solving the
problem of writing names and surnames in non-Lithuanian characters. The
amendment of provisions stipulating the writing of names and surnames in
personal documents would solve the problem of writing personal names of the
citizens of the Republic of Lithuania married to foreigners and having taken
their surnames, their children, and of foreign nationals. The people referred
above would preserve their authentic personal names, not transcribed in
Lithuanian characters. Under the concept set forth in the draft law, the
writing of other Lithuanian citizens’ names and surnames will not change, i.e.
they will be written in Lithuanian characters. Secondly, the laws on amending
the Law on the Protection of Minors against Detrimental Effect
of Public Information is aimed at establishing additional criteria for public information, which might
cause physical, mental
or moral detriment to the development of minors. Thirdly, the laws
amending the Law on Enterprises and Facilities of Strategic Importance
to National Security and Other Enterprises Important to Ensuring National
Security will serve for specification of the list of companies with
strategic importance to national security. Fourthly, the adoption of amendments
to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens would allow attracting highly
qualified experts from other countries, providing more favourable conditions
for the fully-fledged lives of aliens, and setting simplified requirements for
brining into the country members of the alien’s family. Upon the expiration of
the residence permit the alien and his/her family members would have to leave
the Republic of Lithuania. Fifthly, Draft Law on Amending the Law on the
Associations of Multi-Family Apartment House Owners which has the following
aims: to simplify the procedures for the establishment of associations of
multi-family apartment house owners, to eliminate the inconsistencies between
this Law and the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania and other legal acts,
to eliminate the drawbacks which surfaced during the enforcement of the Law, to
expand the scope of application, and to apply the Law not only for stipulating
the management of the joint and partial ownership of multi-family apartment
houses but for other joint and partial ownership assets, such as garages,
recreation facilities and etc. The stipulations of the draft law would also be
applied to the residential house construction associations because at the
moment their establishment and activities are not covered by any law.
Members of the Seimas, dear
colleagues, these are the essential draft laws which we should adopt in this
Spring Session of the Seimas. I think it is important for us not to adopt as
many laws as possible but to achieve that the laws adopted operate as intended
in real life. Let me express a request and hope that we take pride in the work
we do when we lay strong legislative background for the future of Lithuania and
when we restore and justify people’s trust in the Seimas.
I would also like to ask all
politicians and officials to withhold from careless statements or occasional
slips of the tongue, which cause not only unnecessary tension but the
occasional panic attacks as well. I think that in this case we should take it
personally; let me say to Mr. Glaveckas that sending to hell one or another
person is lesser evil than the damaging slip of the tongue, which sends to hell
people’s money. Thus I hope that in the future we will limit ourselves to these
two examples and do our best to avoid careless statements.
Dear colleagues, let me wish you
all the best and success in your work; let me wish you and your loved ones good
health, and composure in our hard, but sometimes very ardent work. Thank you
and good luck!
